Ode To Characters
Writing is having fifteen other people taking up homes inside your head.
Some are kind.
They are good roommates, cleaning the flat.
Leaving me flowers and telling funny jokes.
Some are superficial and transitory.
They pass in and out.
Meaningful to someone else,
but playing roles like my mailman, the butcher, and random joggers.
Others are angry.
They rant and rage,
calling thunderstorms from mythos
that sour my stomach and dampen my hair.
They are villains, the heartbroken and the vengeful.
Still others are confusing.
Sometimes they lock themselves in bedrooms,
refusing to come out and play.
Other times they forsake shyness,
becoming the star of the drama,
popping the popcorn to pass with gossip.
But my favorites are the complicated ones.
I love them the way I love my best friends,
the way I love the people I can’t ever imagine letting go.
They are the ones the story is about,
indispensable to the journey, the adventure,
the arching narrative of meaningful existence.
Broken yet full of life,
their chips and cracks patched up with my own—
so tightly that sometimes,
I can’t tell whether I’m writing myself or them.
Hello, I’m Anaiah! Welcome to my corner of the internet! I’m a writer, editor, and creative who is endlessly fascinated by people, books, beauty, and words—looking at life and its adventures through the lens of the hope Christ has for us. I work with poetry, devotionals, and fiction and love exploring the introspective, the emotional, the beautiful, and the questions life leaves us all facing. I hope you enjoy!
