Natalie Halloway
From the Collection

Poems

Excerpts from All in on Empty. New work appears on Instagram first.

“My license plate still names
a place I once called home,
but I crossed the desert miles
because of you alone.”

— from All in on Empty

“You are not alone in the becoming.
I am there too.”
— From All in on Empty
“Sometimes healing looks less like triumph and more like learning how to stay.”
— From All in on Empty
“But not everything warm needs to become a scandal.”
— From All in on Empty
“Broken souls can recognize each other on first sight.”
— From All in on Empty
“Strong has become another way to say,
‘We noticed you were suffering but needed you functional.’”
— From All in on Empty
“People will build entire homes from your sacrifice, then curse you for collapsing underneath the weight.”
— From All in on Empty
“The cactus doesn’t pretend to be soft.
People do, right before they prick you.”
— From All in on Empty
“Home isn’t the place that makes you stay.
It’s the place that teaches you how to leave, and loves you enough to welcome you back.”
— From All in on Empty
“Not perfection.
Recognition.”

All in on Empty

The full collection is 126 pages of poems written in the middle of the storm.