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affliction
taliyah Swanigan, november 2025

the desire for love.
the lingering sting after realization;
low love for myself
So I searched for it in everyone else
took what I could get,
without hesitation.

ambition awaited,
Yet, I drifted further…
alone.
“It’s never too late”
a phrase not always true,
One all have heard.

validation “needed” to bloom.
I sat in silence,
while the deafening ache for applause amplified

altered myself
in an attempt to arise 
from this shallow grave of distinctions.
adhered to falsifications.
don’t know what’s real

my mind,
the affliction.

TALIYAH SWANIGAN

Picture

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  • Home
    • LGBTQ+ Resources
    • Student Businesses
  • Meet Us
    • Socials >
      • Google Forms
  • This Month
    • BALM Radio >
      • September 2025
      • October 2025
      • November 2025
    • Op-Eds >
      • My Experience Being Painfully Insecure.
      • The Overconsumption Cycle
      • Know Your Rights: What To Do Around Ice
      • Every Season Has A Purpose
    • CREATIVE WRITING >
      • America’s Broken Mirror
      • 400 Lux
      • The boy who feels like Monday
      • Transgressions Against the Father
      • How Fish Become Gods
      • How Fish Become Gods Pt.2
      • Colors of The Wind
      • Friends Forever Not
      • written
      • Why I Spend so Much Time on Rooftops
      • I am from trees and flowers in autumn
      • I WONDER
      • Deathbot Chapter 2: Mellow Rain
      • stolen whispers
      • Puppets in Suits
      • They Hate Us Cause They Ain't Us
      • Heartbreak is a massacre.
      • affliction
      • Sides
      • I Refuse To Cry
      • The Silent Wonders of Time
      • Why So Serious?
      • The Painful Wonders of Space
      • Ante Meridiem
    • Artist Corner >
      • How Fish Became Gods
      • D&D Compilation
    • Media Reviews >
      • Watership Down
      • The Black Phone 2: More is Less
  • Featured Article
    • An Age-Old Question
    • Know Your Rights: What To Do Around Ice
  • Teacher's Corner
    • Teachers Corner: DeVaul
    • Teachers Corner: Ejzak: How to Combat chatGPT? Embrace the Same Anti-Authoritarian Teaching Practices We Should’ve Been Doing All Along
    • Teacher's Corner: Mr. Hazzard's Love Letter To Brooks
    • Teacher's Corner: Gordon
    • Teacher's Corner: Wilde
    • Teacher's Corner: David
    • Teacher's Corner: Ejzak
    • Teacher's Corner: Rago
  • Archive
    • 9.25 >
      • In Another Universe
      • The Stars
      • Two
      • Europe Photos
      • Is Hope the New Punk Rock?: Superman Movie Review
      • Pretty in Pink
      • Cancel the Mouse: Why New Disney Sucks
      • Lampshade
      • Rose Garden
      • My Favorite Color Used To Be Pink
      • I'm Not a Writer: The Importance of Being Bad at Things
      • American Circus
      • Freedom Within The Soul
      • Watering Can
      • Are America’s Food Regulations Really Keeping Us Safe?
      • You!!
      • My Father's Son
      • Good Mother
      • Broken Mold
      • Young and Pretty
      • Pluto
      • Always.
      • A Talk About Illegals
      • Eyes
      • Woes of the Mediocre
      • Two Summers
      • "Are You Stupid?"
      • Chimeras: Growing Up in Majority-White and Majority-Black Schools
    • 10.25 >
      • Absense of August
      • Being fast is a disease
      • Why Won't You Listen To Me???
      • DayDreamer
      • The Nature of the Soul: A Brief Insight
      • Three of the LiB
      • I'm Not a Writer: Small Things to Live For in the Winter
      • Deltarune: The "Real" Reality
      • Perfectly Imperfect: Gilmore Girls Review
      • You Bring Out the Artist in Me
      • In Every Universe
      • We're All Racist
      • If You're So Wise, Why Do You Come Off So Passionless?
      • Alcoholism, Parasites, and Trauma in Weapons.
      • How Animal Farm by George Orwell Still Speaks Today
      • Back To The Beginning: The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 1 Review
      • Deathbot Chapter 1
      • Art fight Collection
      • 흑인들이 보낸 것입니다 (This Came From Black People)
      • How To Train Your Hyper-Realistic Live Action Reboot
      • Petty Games
      • The Diary of A Poet
      • Hatchetfield Trilogy Review
      • Guitar Object Study
      • Thunder
      • Lost and Never Found
      • God Bless America
      • Eviscerated
      • Masked
      • Those Girls
      • Why I Follow Jesus
      • The Subjectivity of Creativity: How Wrongful Interpretation is Dangerous
      • Stolen Whispers
      • Blood
      • Class of 2013