This year I was a renaissance.
This year I put roses on graves I prayed I’d never see.
This year I found out how threatening I am to some of these professors.
This year I worked less for more.
This year I realized who my friends were.
This year I learned that if you see the way out it doesn’t matter if you want to lead.
This year I let myself rest and sketched big dreams.
This year I went farther than I ever have.
This year I felt bigger than I ever have.
This year I learned just how far my I love you echoes.
This year I was healthy.
This year I practiced gratitude and hunted joy.
This year I didn’t miss an opportunity to be in the water.
This year I didn’t hyperventilate.
This year I actually told someone when I was having a freeze response.
This year I started cutting my dad’s hair.
This year I made sidewalks into dance floors.
This year I literally walked through fire and understood how much breath means.
This year I stopped dressing my demons up.
This year I started writing all of it down.
This year I took pictures of beautiful women around the world.
This year I got stood up for the first time.
This year I learned I how deeply in love I can fall with ideas.
This year I had a lot of firsts for the second time.
This year I cried in public when the music told me to.
This year I ate croquettes in Brooklyn.
This year I found out they’re going to put my words on a statue.
This year I was nominated for an honorary doctorate.
This year I told a bunch of kids to listen to themselves more than their teachers.
This year I told a bunch of people with money to pay the artists creating their world.
This year I read poems alongside literary legends and outlaw historians on sacred days.
This year I wrote poems down that nature whispered while I was working on not paying attention.
This year I stared at more sunsets than meeting agendas.
This year I learned to watch the corner of her lips to see how she really feels about it.
This year I pushed myself gentler.
This year I put my dog in more of my poems.
This year I became my most beautiful yet.
—andru defeye
Flommist Andru Defeye is the Guerrilla Poet Laureate of Sacramento. Copyright © 2021 Andru Defeye.
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