Anxiety stands in the doorway,
nightmares covering his gown.
“Can I sleep in your bed tonight?” 

Haunting figures that the prozac can’t chase away.
He seeps gently into your covers, a little too red.
“Can I sleep in your bed tonight?” but he knows
he doesn’t need your permission.

Depression sits at the edge of the bed,
goosebumps and sweat falling over her body.
She stares at the wall and says nothing.

You wonder how long she’ll stay for.
“Just long enough for it to kick in,” she
says. Her lips don’t move, and you know
she is not lying.

Love comes under the patterned sheets from your mother’s house.
She wears vodka breath and the weight of her sister’s words.
She asks you about soulmates and stares at the moon.

“Do you think you could be mine?” she says,
and you look at her lips and run your fingers through her hair.
She says, “Do you think you could be mine?” and you say
you don’t know.

Paula Macena (she/they) is, above all, a writer. Besides this, she’s a Brazilian-American who grew up in New Jersey and currently resides in Los Angeles. Aside from being published in Jr High the Magazine, Culturally Arts Collective, and Prometheus Unbound, her most recent poetry collection, Penance of the Byronic Hero, was released in June 2023. In her pursuit of providing a platform for writers, she is the founder and director of Pluto’s, an organization that makes literature accessible to all. When she’s not reading or writing, you can most likely find her making coffee.

Website: paulamacena.com/links
Instagram: @plutopaula
YouTube: @plutopaula