Thea Tenorio
Thea is a student at Redwood who enjoys painting and has found a new interest in writing poetry.
PORTFOLIO OF WORK
MICHELANGELO
I'm not scared of being painted purple , blue , yellow or red
No amount of color can make me see past myself
​
I am scared of being the artist
Trusting so much on a blank canvas to make me whole
Expecting so much when I can barely
Dip my brush the way I'm supposed to
I don't know how to treat the canvas
Or the difference between a sketch and an outline
​
So do I splash my colors on it expecting the colors to come together?
Do I rip holes and cut through ?
Or am I a sculptor?
Pushing away at the imperfections , to convince myself that like God
I can perfect things and satisfy myself till I see that it is good
Am I Michelangelo , carving the innocence and beauty out of David
To make everyone see who I made
​
Perhaps there is no canvas to paint on
Or clay to mold
Maybe it's just me or nothing at all
We may never know
​
But we are not like God
You and I are not Michelangelo
DIRECTIONS
Enter the room and look at the walls.
Lights. Frames. Not there. Nothing.
Walk around.
Don’t touch anything.
Trail your hands through what you can.
Notice how your presence sets little burns in the room.
Walk further.
Look at the wardrobe ,
There is nothing.
You’ve set it aflame-
Approach the bed cautiously.
A dip in the middle but nobody to cause it.
Fix the bed and head to the balcony.
The ground is dead but the sky-
The sky, stars and all.
Heat hits you.
You turn around.
The room is aflame yet nothing is ruined.
Enter the bathroom to the right of the wardrobe.
There it is.
The cause of the heat.
The flames.
Turn around. And look.
The glass. Cracked and yet it shows.
You.
WAIT.
Resilience
Waiting for the right moment.
Healing wounds at a pace that
Doesn’t make you choke on your
Own words.
Resistance.
No. I don’t want to.
It’s not right. It’s not correct.
It’s not the only way.
I will give you my opinion whether
You ask for it or not. Calling me
Into a conversation is asking for my opinion.
Talk to me and I will make you wait.
Know that when I speak , you will listen.
I don’t lay in bed to think.
My place though unconventional- is my bathroom.
Sitting on the floor
Leaning against the wall
Or lying down staring at the ceiling
I clean the bathroom profusely because
It’s my place. My room is busy.
The bathroom echoes my thoughts.
People sing in the shower to voice out their feelings.
I sit on the floor to listen to them
And that is enough
The 4 walls know what I am thinking
And that is enough
I don’t need to speak
I don’t need to do anything
Because the look in my eyes when I leave
Is enough
I don’t fight back
I can’t.
I fight back with thoughts and actions
Mine
POETRY
A good poem is one written showing a style that is unique and expressive of the author and their personality while maintaining a level of clearity with the people who are reading their work.