NOSTALGIA (AS A PROSE POEM) by Rae Iolene

NOSTALGIA (AS A PROSE POEM)

Take me back to 2009. Before the move and the Baptist boyfriend my Lutheran family loved a little too much. Take me back to that playground where I hung upside down, the sun burning my hair blonde. Take me back to the skinny low-rise jeans and checkered Etnies (okay, maybe not the jeans). Take me back to sleepovers and move nights and camping under the stars. Take me back to eye contact and long conversations and duck tape art. Take me back to that day in 7th grade when I smacked a boy in math class and said, Stop bullying girls, you moron, and the teacher lectured the class on treating females with respect, and I never got sent to the office. What is accountability? Millennials know it well. We said, That’s hot, and I’m going out, or That midnight movie premier? Yep, I’ll meet you there. We made plans and we showed up. We spent time giggling and dancing and making eye contact. We folded handwritten notes and stuck them in each other's back pockets. And somehow we left this sliver of humanity against our own free-will for a reality driven by tech-lords and wannabe gods. Our culture sold back to us with inflation price tags and all we really want is to be back in 5th Grade riding the Outlaw for the first time at AdventureLand screaming at the top of our lungs, BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, BOO! 

xx. Rae Iolene 

29 April 2026