Jessica Wood is a second-year in creative writing student at Concordia University. A writer her whole life, she particularly enjoys writing creative non-fiction, poetry, and autofiction.
Originally from Vancouver Island, BC, she has been in Montreal for a year and a half and has loved every minute of it. This is the first publication of her writing, and she hopes it will be the first of many.
In the Dead of Winter (I Can Feel Okay Again!)
maybe
in the dead of winter I can feel okay again.
this week is already better! I’m tentatively hopeful, and defiantly confident that
in the dead of winter, I can feel okay again.
sure, my heating bill is higher than my friends, who warm their hands on a shared joint, shivering together like molecules as they puff and pass.
and even though I don’t smoke, I’m standing out there too
in the dead of winter. I can feel okay again!
even though
-my laundry freezes on the walk home (the laundromat dryers eat my quarters and spit out no hot air in return)
-there’s salt water rings around my boots (I am using all of my towels to block off drafty windows)
-I have to shovel the stairs if I want to get groceries (I pretend I’m a penguin, imploring myself to laugh when I slip on the sidewalk)
I am hopeful. and I am confident.
in the dead of winter, I can feel okay again.
Jessica Wood