Smile with your eyes
and i will with mine
Crooked teeth and all
Tell me you’re hurting with no words uttered
from your lips, as swollen as they are,

I see your tea-stained pearls for teeth;
crooked smile and cracked vocal chords, bleeding
you’re bleeding and are trying to stop the blood;
these are your lyrics from a song unsung
a life unlived

Do you know the body holds so much of life’s pleasures?
a beautiful plausible purpose unknown to those with chipped teeth,
broken nails and fatigued eyelids
desiring closure every five seconds

One,
some have never known the capabilities of the human body
only the persephone

Two,
the pang of living plagues each moment
like clockwork with an empty feeling eroding the body of itself.

Three,
but if you smile with your eyes,
you cannot escape the transparency
fluidity
vulnerability the body has to offer.

Four,
that arrives when a stranger or two exchange your glance for theirs;
a momentary exhale

Five,
as no obscurities lie behind the eyes,
your pupils are brown, chestnut - even - like mine.

so smile with your eyes,
and I will mine

In black ink, I now conceptualize the divine ~

Savanna Mai Rust (she/her) is a sophomore studying Creative Writing and Film and Media Studies at Columbia College. She has been writing ever since she was little and has admired the works of Shonda Rhimes and Ava DuVernay and their contributions to Black representation on-screen or in the writers’ room. She also has interned at the NYCLU as she is passionate about the intersectionality between Black rights and the arts. She is the oldest of four and comes from a Caribbean, specifically Jamaican, background that has influenced her work and identity, as well. You can find her on Instagram @savannamaiart and @savanna_rust7.