Nina Theiss Writing Portfolio

Published by Half and One, 2024

Staring ahead 

I think I’ll die

Perfecting picturesque pursuits

Only result I yield is

 “nice try” 

And I consider going back to my roots

Faulty flashbacks of father’s failures flood

As a risk I’ve wrought resulted in ruin

I begin to fear its beset in my blood

And I must make friends 

with this catastrophic conclusion

Arraignments and articulation 

assure I’m afloat

An outsider’s outlook 

would ease the most obscure of my fears

Yet with deliberate self-destruction I’m diagnosed

Consistently criticizing the claps through the cheers

I’ll scream and shout 

sans societal symbolism

I’m cursed and confused, 

I’m wretched and wrong

Deaf ears sign it off to simple sentimentalism

And so these particular preachings I prolong