Here are things that I know are true, unranked by order and importance
by Kiara Seth
1. Apple seeds contain a minute amount of cyanide
2. I can count on one hand the number of times I've said I love you and meant it
3. Women blink nearly twice as much as men
Some footnotes about each
a. I have swallowed every seed I have ever eaten. My body refuses to give in.
b. I have never said it in Hindi. I'm certain I can't.
c. I blink three times more
There is information I would never wish on you, and apples I would never feed you. But when I learnt about them, in a rabbit hole I don't fit in anymore, I learnt about love. I left my roots in a box at the bottom of my closet, and nothing has ever meant as much as it all does, but I've spent the rest of my life trying to replicate it, and I never quite managed. The hesitation keeps my eyes wet, and suddenly the ducts get a moment's rest.
4. What they don't tell you about it all is that the moment will pass, and one day, so will the sinking, but alas, you must stay.
d. That, unfortunately, to tell a good story and write it, you must relive every square inch of it all. Squeeze a drying rag to clean up the wood's stain.
This will not be me.
Kiara Seth is a Neuroscience and Computer Science double major at Wheaton from Mumbai. She loves poetry, and has a soft spot for pink skies. She misses the tropics, but New England is slowly helping her fall in love with the cold.
Illustration by Nico Adams Léon