Tender Blue
by Annastatia Brooks
There’s something so tender about the past, like a bruise that almost feels good to press.
The crinkle of a rainbow parachute, saturated microplastics, blankets turned into palaces, sidewalk chalk stuck beneath my nails.
The grass felt softer, my mom smiled more, and somewhere a boomerang sits in the dirt from that one day in July when it didn’t return.
The past is probably best lying right where I left it.
Even still, sometimes I’ll push on that bruise, if only to ensure it stays freshly blue.
‘Tender Blue’ won second place in our 2025 Spring Short Competition.
Annastatia Brooks is from the beautiful island of Newfoundland, Canada. She is a poet who was raised in a small town by the sea, and she is currently studying English and Social Justice & Community Studies in the city. Annastatia works as an Assistant Editor for her campus paper, where she also helps run the SMU Creatives column. She is hoping to become a full-time writer, publishing poetry collections and illustrated children’s books. Her poetry has previously been published in The Scop, Witcraft.org, Grand Little Things, and Current Word Publishing’s Instant Noodles.