tumble dry
By Carrie Tan
pick a random year, and we are racing down staircases that glow brighter at the very ends, while the sun radiates something that’s as close as it gets to a melody. the refrains are under your feet, swishing like maraca-sands, the rests are as thin as the fine lines in your hair. you’re flying with a stationery-filled parachute, landing flat on empty
white that turns to fake grass, plastic playground, stuffed koi fish. in this version we are cannonballs into dark pits, speechless but croaking out deep hollows of grey. worn-out sneakers spill as the hallway slants downward. you clatter before me, i watch you go.
Graphic (Taking a Dip) by Priscilla Wu
Artist’s Statement
This poem reaches back into the past. A frivolousness is conveyed at its nostalgic beginning, where the speaker reflects on her early life, compiling them into ‘random year[s]’ that ‘glow[ed]’ ‘sun[nily]’, frolicking, free-falling, and floating in youth. Yet, as the two friends charge carelessly toward their future, this dream sequence falls apart. With age emerges loss, and any void or fabrication reveals a regretful desire to regain the ideal. Childhood, together with a friend, ‘tumble[s]’ out of the speaker’s life. She is left planted on the floor, longing to start the cycle of memory again if it means she can relive her old happiness.
‘Tumble Dry’ was written as a reflection of personal experiences, after reading countless coming-of-age stories that coincided with my own. It responded to everyday sorrows, yearnings, and fantasies, sentiments which I found were shared by a large group of young individuals who were tumultuously but resiliently growing into themselves. I hope that when anyone reads this, they might feel seen and find solace in knowing that these journeys are part of growing up.
Clairo sings, as the ocean wafts through the window, and cats loaf softly about the room. That’s where you’ll find Carrie, writing her new adventure. A student who seeks to explore the world through her works, she strives towards creativity and originality, searching for stories to let her imagination take flight. Her works have been featured in the anthology Eye on the World 2025 and in the Write and Burn competition 2024.
