Diary of Feelings - Aug. 6, 2026

at twelve years old, I kept a diary

for 12 months, every day scratching

down the kids and people I met,

sports played, schoolwork, mom

and dad moments, a laundry list

of activities in the packed timeline

of a child’s day

I notice now, I never wrote after supper,

never sat in my room as bedtime loomed,

never left emotional commentary,

the classic time for reflection,

the closed journal on my desk,

sealed to my own depths

a girl would have plowed into

their secrets, used ink for blood

to express the guts of emotion,

spilled over to extra pages,

written things for no one’s eyes

but her own

today begins a diary of feelings

which will require that I look

beneath the skin of my actions,

around muscle, past tendons,

through blood and into the marrow

of the darkest rooms inside me