Michelle Garcia is a 20 year-old creative writer and multimedia artist. She’s a 2018 graduate from Woodbridge Senior High School and is now a 3rd year senior at Virginia Tech. She’s enjoyed the transition from suburban Northern VA to Appalachia. She considers Blacksburg, VA to be her favorite place now. She will graduate Virginia Tech in the Spring of 2021 with a BA in English Literature & Language and a BA in Communication Sciences & Social Justice Inquiry. She is also minoring in Public Health. Michelle’s life long dream is to build a career in creative education with a focus on mental and behavioral health. She hopes to utilize her passion for storytelling and creative communication to enlighten and empower others.

Michelle has a vast aray of literary influences including Robert Hass, Sarah Kay, Jorie Graham, and Sylvia Plath. She is a loving cat mom, mental health advocate, amateur musician, and avid horror movie watcher. As if she couldn’t write more, she has 20 consistent pen pals from all over the world with whom she enjoys correspondence. “They’re my closest friends, hand down,” she said.

Every single day this year, Michelle has devoted time to writing poetry or prose. She even posts one piece on her Instagram story and website each night. With great dedication, she has approached her content creation with more acceptance and less criticism. She has not skipped a single day this year and is “looking forward to looking back at all the highs and lows of this rather intense year…”

Michelle’s love for writing is vital to her sense of self. Her work often focuses on shifting identity, the Asian American experience, her loves and losses, mental health, and childhood as a continuous exploration. Over a 7 year period, Michelle has written an extensive portfolio of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and experimental prose on her website. She prefers to think of her website as a timeline of her creative development — something anatomical and raw. Starting in 7th grade, through the chaos of high school, and now college, she has documented her growth as a young woman and as a writer. In the near future, Garcia plans to release a book of original work.

Here are a few samples she chose to share with us:

TRUCE
Staredown between the neon orange bottle
and my hand already cupped in anticipation.

This unfolding drama is what I do not tell you.
The story goes like this: I almost do and then

I don’t. Count to ten. Think of the good things,
like mother taught you when you were young

and yet sad enough to die. I’ve been rehearsing
the good things for decades. Orange marmalade

and rich people’s lawns that water themselves,
my records from the 70s and the sepia freckles

that scatter across the nose of the man I love.
I’ll stay for that, I guess, and the staredown ends.

Loose Tapestry

I play wallflower to your world.

Your life—crisply folded, deliciously cookie-cutter,

coordinated family photos that take hours to stage.

I will never relate to your relations.

Mine— we’re a loose tapestry,

more rough-and-tumble, less methodical.

Do not misunderstand me, love—

I envy the order of your universe, but mine

has no formal design or blueprint to follow.

I’ve never had to pose before, angling my shoulders

to please the blinding flash.

Forgive my awkward stance, my lack of grace.

It’s evident I come from somewhere else.

A place where posture doesn’t matter, where Dad

comes from around the corner without warning

to snap photos of us laughing over our breakfast plates,

never stopping to count down from three but that’s okay

because in that world at least I do not wonder if my smile

looks forced in the Christmas card you’ll never send.

Cardamom

Heat-induced goosebumps, strands of hair shed on wispy bedsheets,
you and I loved with the fever of a thousand and one Julys.
This one tastes different already, this watery, bloodless summer
void of eager touch, as bland as the dust under a desert moon.
These days, I have too much breath for my own liking
and these nights, I wish I had a body to inflate.
A shoulder to bite without breaking skin, threadlike veins
snaking across a forearm like English ivy, an asymmetrical birthmark
like a pile of spilled cinnamon above the navel.
Yours.
How it tasted less like cinnamon and more like cardamom,
which was living proof that the body is a false prophet,
that it is capable of turning disciples into skeptics,
that all love is senseless.
It is July now
and I am remembering those afternoons and mornings,
cardamom seasoning the tongue, how I called it communion
and called you my God.

Michelle has also recently completed a music video covering James Blake’s song “I’ll Come Too.” She performs vocals and ukulele as well as incorportated a montage of personal video footage.

We admire Michelle’s daily devotion to writing, sharing her work, and candid personal expression. Her work is raw, honest, and reflective. PW Perspective wishes her the best of luck in her academic and professional career and will continue our support.

If you would like to read more of Michelle Garcia’s work, you can reach her here:

Website: https://mooopsy.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michellegarciapoetry/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mooopsy/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mooopsy