alone, I am a choir

by Ally Aardsma

Image credit: David Beale on Unsplash

whenever I can          I retreat into myself          my ovular expanse        boundless me

the contents of my name are held here          on the inside

this is where    I untangle my thoughts   and    crochet them into sweaters   shape them

into poems    and give them titles       translate them into other languages         to alter the choreography of eyes and tongue    form them into a ball    and bounce it against the wall         as I am the speaker and the listener         in a complete dialogue          pour them into martini glasses       and watch the corners melt      pour them into a lake     and float on its surface         put them in cursive         and send them out to my loves          press them into black and white keys          and sing them to myself as loud as I want        and as the products of my vocal cords echo back      from nowhere and everywhere    I hear pure periwinkle peace on the notes          I write down the harmonies         and call the pages a diary          my soul is spelled out          between its covers          and across every phonon          of my perfect oval

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Ally Aardsma

Ally Aardsma (she/her) is an English major and Spanish minor at Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN. Ally was a featured reader at Lipscomb’s music and arts festival, Wild Bison, and will present creative prose and linguistic research at the Sigma Tau Delta and Popular Culture Association national conferences in the spring of 2026. When she’s not writing poems, she loves crocheting her own clothes, learning languages, and reading fiction.