Forever June

the end of a beginning

my god, forever june is now a completed work.

when i started writing back in february, i wasn't sure where my words would take me. every poem is dear to me, and i couldn't be happier with the outcome.

although it intentionally starts out rough, this book was always meant to revolve around self-love and acceptance. i hope june's journey helped you love yourself, as that is all i could wish for.

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[ a few fun facts ] 

—i was inspired to write this after just looking up at the stars one night. crazy what the smallest things can do to you.

—ii. color wheel and xii. infinite took the longest to write, but those two are my favorites in the entire collection.

— i always planned to never reveal the name of june's lover (hana) until the last poem.

—june's last name is ayres.

—i purposely never specified june's race because everyone can go through this self-love journey

—the name hana means "flower", hence the reason why i referred to flowers many times in this book. in v. flowers i mentioned june setting down marigolds; in 'flower language', marigolds are often a symbol of grief and jealousy.

—initially, i was going to end the book with june dying as well, but i decided against it and made a happy ending instead. imagine if that happened—

—there's intentional parallels between many poems in the story, such as iii. underwater and xxiv. nemesis. can you spot them all?

—i'm a little younger than what most of you guessed haha

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finally, thank you, thank you to all my readers. some of you have been with me since the beginning while others joined in later, and i am so grateful for each and every one of you. forever june wouldn't have been the same without your constant support. you know who you are.

and for the future? i'll most likely be pursuing competitions off Wattpad—maybe with an individual poem, maybe with the entire manuscript. no matter what, i'll keep you all updated.

—sky, 7/17/2020