Reborn in Gemini
The weeks since I had my last summer sunset outside had stacked like books at the New York Public Library’s wooden shelves, all dusty and lost in translation like a memory from a past life of sorts. It was the first June in years where I could drink lemonade and it meant nothing more than a tart liquid in a plastic cup, a s’more or two at the bonfire, a little bit of conversational sugar to bide the time without sweat or stomachaches. The blazing sun nor the embers dancing at my bare feet caused me much inconvenience–do I no longer cry at every inconvenience? Do I no longer wish for a world more tender, more warm? The world is warm enough, and I am bathed instead of smothered in it. Today the birds sing no more about all the worries and the cookies from the winter (did they taste good? I create, but I never indulge) but instead about the little something else about me that everyone seems to love. Maybe I’m not loved for my hard mind or my soft body, but there’s the thing, the all of it, the facetious sweet quirk of me that only comes aglow on Fridays like these. Today taught me that, and also that sugar is not unforgiving, but simply just sweet. The only thing that sugar is meant to be is sweet. Tomorrow I, too, will learn to be like sugar.
About the Author
Nida Mubaraki (she/her) is an Asian-American obsessive writer, reader, actress, and singer based in Central New Jersey and Philadelphia, though her ancestry dominantly hails from the vale of Kashmir. Her work, which stretches from poetry to plays to prose, tends to be the tiniest bit autobiographical, with concentrations on girlhood and the human experience. Her work has been recognized numerous times by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. She works as a senior editor, Twitter head, and contributor for The Empty Inkwell Review. When she isn’t pressing her pen to paper, you can find her performing onstage, writing film reviews on Letterboxd, baking vegan pastries for her friends, or reading in her room curled up with her cats and a cup of coffee. Email her at [email protected] or find her on Twitter (@pennedbynida).