The Indicator x The Student: “Notes from Nothing”
Originally published in the Spring 2024 issue of “The Indicator,” Managing Opinion Editor Willow Delp ’26 explores the objectification of a person within a relationship in their poem.
I.
Hold it. Drop it. Shake it. Bite it.
Love it, hate it, leave it. Leave. It —
is fleeting; everything rots.
Nothing is forever. You will be the one to leave first.
II.
You will be the first one to leave.
I don’t remember my old self. Who was I before I was
a thing
in your arms?
Have I always been so pliable, so malleable —
Was I distorted? Was I born, or was I made this way?
III.
Was I made
this way? What I know is:
I am the object
of your affection. The apple
of your eye. Before you sink your teeth in —
you relish in the way you hold me
in your palm. Let the juice dribble from your chin as you
devour. I am your thing. Until you
finish.
Then I am
nothing.
IV.
If I am nothing, then
I am no-thing. Then:
I am no thing.
I am not a thing.
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