I am surpassing the constraints of genre and writing a poem about my whole, non-compartmentalized self

My name is Isabella Marie Trent

I am 4’11’’ according to my doctors

But 5’3’’ if you ask my grandpa

I used to be smaller but now I’m bigger and I’m still trying to figure out how that happened

I was born with an unpronouncable condition and the capacity to love beyond reason

I am still trying to figure out which is worse

I almost died on October 17th, 2012

I used to think that the world was worse with me in it

Then I thought it was better

But now I’m convinced she just likes to keep spinning

I believe God lies in comfortable silences

And I believe in love in love in that Dempsey mowing your lawn kinda way

Last summer I tried to be a buddhist but got too busy

I was a vegetarian for a year

I had my first surgery at 8 months

Fell in love first at 12

My favorite animals are pandas and I think stars are the peepholes into heaven

I write simple songs in 4/4 with a C Major key

I am afraid of ghosts

And love waffles

I was born to a passionate mother who loves ferociously

And adopted by a man who wishes we’d forget he does too

I can make pancakes if you put the spatula in my mouth

And when I love someone I never stop

Yes

I am talking to you

Golden-eyed friend with my secrets in a shoe box

And you

Music-throated man in N. Carolina who packed my heart in your suitcase

And there are nights like tonight when tonight becomes tomorrow and I am still writing poetry when I wish that I was something other than my whole, non-compartmentalized self

But here I will lie

With an inkstained heart and a cramping wrist

For I am the poet

Sitting on a stage and giving up her soul

And I have never felt more alive