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      • Poetry: Michelle Baleka
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      • Poetry 8: Danielle Bryl-Dam
      • Poetry 8: Leah Kuiack
      • Poetry 8: Jameson Lawson
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      • Fiction 9: Chris Chang
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      • Experimental Writing 10: Akshi Chadha
      • Experimental Writing 10: Adelphi Eden
      • Experimental Writing 10: Nicole Feutl
      • Experimental Writing 10: Isabella Kennedy
      • Experimental Writing 10: Christopher Paul
      • Poetry 10: Meaghan Furlano
      • Poetry 10: Li-elle Rapaport
      • Fiction 10: Meaghan Furlano
      • Fiction 10: Carly Pews
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      • Creative Noniction 10: Courtney WZ
      • Screenplay 10: Margaret Huntley
  • Issue 11.1
    • Contributors: Issue 11.1
    • Fiction 11.1: Tega Aror
    • Fiction 11.1: Chloe Bachert
    • Fiction 11.1: Kelly Ge
    • Fiction 11.1: Asia Porcu
    • Fiction 11.1: Taryn Rollins
    • Fiction 11.1: Pauline Shen
    • Poetry 11.1: Jennifer Adamou
    • Poetry 11.1: Katherine Barbour
    • Poetry 11.1: Akshi Chadha
    • Poetry 11.1: Emma Graham
    • Poetry 11.1: Li-elle Rapaport
  • Issue 11.2
    • Contributors: Issue 11.2
    • Fiction 11.2: Victoria Domazet
    • Fiction 11.2: Mackenzie Emberley
    • Fiction 11.2: Rachel Oseida
    • Fiction 11.2: Cindy Xie
    • Creative Nonfiction 11.2: Alex Rozenberg
    • Creative Nonfiction 11.2: Alanna Zorgdrager
    • Poetry 11.2: Cassy Player
    • Poetry 11.2: Madeleine Schaafsma
    • Experimental 11.2: Mackenzie Emberley
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Fall 2021 | Occasus | Issue 11.2

Cogito, Ergo...

When I was small and the rain came down like Genesis
I would jump into my yellow vinyl jacket and red rubber boots
And march outside and pounce on every puddle and dance in the downpour
And use my toe to clear clogged storm sewers and save my family from the flood, and when I
finally came in with pruney feet and cold, heavy clothes clinging to my little limbs,
I would smear snot off my numb nose with my shirt sleeve and smile.
 
When I was small, sometimes my feet would get in each other's way,
And finding myself on the sidewalk, cement like sandpaper scraping open my skin,
I would suddenly feel fragile. But the throbbing wound made me thankful
for the faithful form that housed me on this earth, and hugs healed me quickly:
soon I’d be picking at scabs, scorning the pain that caused them.
 
When I was small, at that start of spring—not according to the calendar
But according to the way the earth breathes faintly on your face
So that even though you still see spots of snow you smell the promise of fresh muck
drifting down from things thawing somewhere--
on that day I felt I could feel the future
And I would hurtle down a hill and let my probing palm ponder a patch of soggy grass
And my heart would surge with song as I blessed the breeze that beckoned me.
 
But when I got big, I found higher things, and shackled my host.
 
I thought I was wise, a bona fide sage
with all of the truths of ages unknown.
I thought I was clever, spending my years
Rejecting the earth to exercise wit.
I thought I was real: my mind could transcend
And substitute matter. Discipline trained
my body to yield, to stay in the chair,
aphonic, inert, and fatten my brain
By starving my will. In safety I palled;
No season arrived to alter my fate.
 
But then, one day, it rained like Genesis.
Forlorn, my frame declared its Exodus:
I dared to don the yellow vinyl coat,
A little laugh began to thaw my throat.
My scalding skull was cooled with every drip,
My brutal brain at last relaxed its grip.
Each drop was nature’s precious ministry,
Recalling what I lost by staying dry. 
Madeleine Schaafsma is finishing her third year at King's for an Honors Specialization in English and a Minor in Writing from Western. She can't resist a good metaphor and loves to explore the meaning within the seemingly mundane, so she hopes to use her writing to share the resulting joys, questions, and reflections with others.

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