The Pumpkin Spice Girls and Sound

By Milla Kuiper

The Pumpkin Spice Girls

The girls, they
Drink pumpkin spice in the fall
And peppermint at Christmas
Pick flowers in the spring,
And eat strawberries in summer.
Wear their little scarves
Or frilly sundresses,
Dark colors in winter,
Knitted sweaters in autumn,
Pastels in spring,
Cropped tees when the sun beats down.
“You fell for the corporate scam,”
We whisper.
“Silly creatures.
The companies, they
Pump out flavors 
And colors for you
To cycle through
So you never tire
Of the products 
They feed you
So you never grow weary
Of their constant reaping.”
But what they don’t tell us,
What we aren’t allowed to know
Because we were raised in cities
And have forgotten how things are made
Is that you are living from the earth
And feeding on what she yields to you
She holds our seeds and warms them
And they will be ready for harvest
Only when she is ready to give them back.
You drink
Pumpkin spice lattes in the fall
Because that is when pumpkins grow
Wear dark colors in winter
Because they soak up the sunshine
And hold it close to your skin
The flowers bloom for you in spring
And in summer you bare your skin
For your own survival and comfort.
Do not let the people shame you
For loving the seasons
And the timing
In which the earth
Blesses us with her gifts.

Sound

Thundering in your chest
Holding your hand as you stand alone 
in this dark room full of people, 
mouths gaping, eyes closed. 
It ripples over your skin
your clothes buzz with it. 
Its weight gnaws your bones, 
fills them, 
pulls you 
toward the center of the earth.
Let it take you.
A year, a generation, a thousand years, 
A cosmos full of everything.
They pass in pulsing seconds. 
Galaxies fill your mouth.
You are an ant, crying out to the sun, 
you are a grain of dirt, 
a burning star, 
a siren.
Open up your lungs, and release your music. 

Milla Kuiper is a freshman writing major who has no idea what she’s doing but hopes you won’t notice. She loves every form of art she’s encountered, and her backup plan is to live barefoot in the woods and hang out with frogs.