‘Loved Ones’, ‘Bookshop’ & ‘Your Sweater’

Clara Gillin is a rising artist, photographer and writer- as well as highschooler balancing her time with school work and many extra curriculars. She doesn't shy away from challenges, starting multiple of her own clubs and managing top grades while exploring her interests. After winning a district-wide writing contest, she's submitted to many different artists’ outlets in hopes of being discovered and sharing her art with the world.

Loved Ones

Fingers intertwined to bring comfort when the pain burrows in the body

Texts at the lonely hour to keep sorrowful thoughts from taking the throne

Arms warmly reached around the back to be heart to heart

Roaring applause when dreams are finally grasped in the palms after years of enduring blisters Uplifting affirmations even when the brain is weighing light floating along the clouds

It’s the presence during the greatness and the presence in the pain

It’s the loved ones who love you through it all just the same

Bookshop

It tells stories of stories

and their stories too

A never-ending list of genres to consume

What you desire to know

can be found here

May just require an open ear

a scan from the eyes

or a curl of the spine

But I can assure you

it’s a good use of time

Your Sweater

holding onto your sweater would’ve unravelled

the stitching painfully sewn into the endocardium

of my heart which at times struggles on its own

from tearing itself apart at the stitching utilizing the sharp

blade of anger but before the edge can reach to engrave

your name like a memorial of your leaving

a softer yet sadder tool forces itself to be of use

though of false power as it does nothing

but drain my heart of its once fullness

and so the answer to your question is no

I have no care to home your material object

so soft to touch but so painful to view

as my survival depends on its vacancy

Mackenzie (Mac) Gellner completed her Bachelor of Communication in journalism at Mount Royal University. Her poetry has been published in literary magazines, such as You Might Need To Hear This, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, WA Magazine, Eunoia Review and The Word's Faire, along with a short story in Humans of the World. Mac also enjoys photography, with work published in Kelp Journal and WA Magazine.