“How To Fall Back in Love with Being Alive” by Ruby Demitros
November 7, 2025
Let the citrus drip past your hand and down
your arm. Have it dry and stay a sticky trail of sunshine.
Feel your body glow warm, making brown eyes
turn amber, and blonde hair golden.
Coat your nails with the shade “Shimmering Hope,” and fall
back in love with being alive. Sit in your backyard
bathing in your skin’s sour taste. Always dream
never close your eyes. Wait for when it spills
from the cracks in your skin, emanates from your lips.
Pick marigolds, mourn their lives, and send them off
downstream. Stroll barefoot, don’t mind when your curls
get stuck in your ChapStick. Don’t speak
for days. Carve trees with your fingertips, yellow
gold fruit will fall at your feet. Take a bite
and [repeat].
This poem was written by Ruby Demitros as a 9th grader at Ballard High School, with WITS writer-in-residence Rachel Kessler. Performed at the Seattle Arts & Lectures SAL Presents Series event with Patti Smith at Meany Hall on November 9, 2025.