Because there is something sad about actors using onions to cry during emotional scenes

Photography by Avah Dodson, Creative Writing team manager.

someone told me once that the rain is when god cries (his tears are our floods and waterfalls [i peel layers off an onion]; my tears dry under my eyes) just to feel something—anything—at all.

Avah Dodson’s short fiction and poetry have won prizes and recognition in the Bluefire 1,000 Words Contest, the Royal Nonesuch Humor Contest, the Scholastic Writing Awards contest (National Gold Medalist), the Sarah Mook Poetry Contest, the Kay Snow Poetry & Fiction Contests, and the Betty Award Contest, among others. Her works have appeared in The Incandescent Review, Echo Lit, Parallax, Voices de la Luna, Stone Soup Magazine, Highlights Magazine, Skipping Stones Magazine, DePaul’s Blue Book: Best American High School Writing, and others. She enjoys reading, going on walks with her cats, and k-pop (a little too much). She despises grapes with seeds and ukuleles. You can find her holed up in her room listening to Stray Kids or spending time with her family and friends.

*in the style of Anaya Marei; see her original poem here.