Dedication

When I was little my mother told me dragonflies were fairies.
I didn’t quite believe until I met you, for surely it would take
both myth and magic to conceive a creature as lovely as you.
You smile, and the sun returns home to a world long abandoned.
Your gaze so like the amber flower of the heavens, fills me with tender affection.
Would that I could place you in a locket,
That I may never wander in the annihilating sea of loneliness.

I look up into the sky and see that citrus slice suspended,
Casting its golden aroma on the cracked shell of my heart.
Its warmth tells me to love my body and love what it loves.
From the next room your laughter rings out and heats my skin,
And in doing so teaches me how to live with gratitude and joy.

Nathalie Friederich is an opera singer located in Baltimore currently studying at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins. Her work is rooted in introspection, trauma, nature, love in its different mediums, mental illness, hope, and music. Nathalie aspires to provide other survivors of violence with art that can provide connection and community as well as inspire action and empathy.