Break
Piper Martin
I’m sitting in my parked Honda Accord outside a shopping mall in Alpharetta Georgia. It’s cold. The asphalt is icy from left over snow. It’s around midnight and the security guards are beginning to lock the main entrance. I watch the man who just played Santa leaving the back entrance. I wave as I lazily take off my apron and elf ears. I got this job from the mom of the girl who married my brother. Now I sit and watch kids run through department stores like the elves they are for twelve hours a day, as I take pictures of screaming babies perched on Santa’s lap. Santa, who is actually Steve, who I’ve known since I was a little girl and who occasionally attends family gatherings.
Somewhere in an old drawer, there’s a photo of me sitting on Steve's lap. Back when my mom used to dress me and my brother up in bright red outfits and bribe us with candy to sit still. I remember when I started work I noticed how much smaller the Santa sets seemed to be. As a kid, the white reindeer used to tower over head and sparkle against the florescent lights. What felt like a fairytale at age six was now revealed to be cardboard cut-outs run by pot heads with anger issues. Santa lives in Dawsonville Georgia, not the North Pole. I put my duct taped car keys in the ignition and drove home.
Somewhere in an old drawer, there’s a photo of me sitting on Steve's lap. Back when my mom used to dress me and my brother up in bright red outfits and bribe us with candy to sit still. I remember when I started work I noticed how much smaller the Santa sets seemed to be. As a kid, the white reindeer used to tower over head and sparkle against the florescent lights. What felt like a fairytale at age six was now revealed to be cardboard cut-outs run by pot heads with anger issues. Santa lives in Dawsonville Georgia, not the North Pole. I put my duct taped car keys in the ignition and drove home.
About the Author
"My name is Piper Martin. I’m twenty-three, and I recently graduated from Georgia College and State University with an English degree in hopes of pursuing a career in journalism or book publishing. I’m thrilled to say this is my first time being published. Break is a prose poem I wrote my senior year of college, and is one of my favorite pieces."
About the Work
"When you ask a kid what their favorite holiday is or what they want to be when they grow up, their answer will be instantaneous. Children have the freedom of seeing life for all the good it has to offer. Their favorite holiday is Valentine's Day because they like giving candy to their
friends, and they want to be a vet because they like animals. For them, it truly is that simple. On the other hand, when an adult is asked these questions their answer is more hesitant. It's hard to allow ourselves to only see the good once we've seen the entire picture. We can't see Christmas lights without remembering the stress of emptying our savings to buy gifts for friends and family.
I wrote "Break" my senior year of college, when the safety net of adolescence felt less present than ever. It's about the pain of realizing life won't be sugar-coated for you anymore, but it's also about the safety in realizing life isn't sugar-coated from anyone. While it might be harder to acknowledge the good in things, the bad makes us appreciate them more. It’s important to allow the kid in us to have a favorite holiday."
About the Author's Process
"For me writing has always felt visual. Whatever I write begins with the outline of an idea. It has a mood, a color, even a shape before any words are put to paper. I always know what a piece is supposed to feel like before I know what it's supposed to say. I have a yellow Five Star notebook that sees every step of the process. To start I make a bullet-point list of the first words that come to mind. A piece about a childhood dog might have words like nostalgia, comfort, loud, and reminiscent. Once I know what I want to say I map out its order. On the side of the paper I make an arrow from top to bottom planning out how I want the piece to feel. For example, if I want the piece to start pessimistic then end hopeful or start youthful and end mature. Then I'll organize some main words from the bullet-point list in an order that fits the emotional flow I want, and begin to expand the ideas. If I need research on a topic or notes of any kind I'll list them here. At that point I being free writing on each individual idea, then its time for retyping everything into a word document and final editing. The end product usually ends up being different from the initial brainstorming, sometimes a piece will turn into something new in editing, but the feel is always the same."
"My name is Piper Martin. I’m twenty-three, and I recently graduated from Georgia College and State University with an English degree in hopes of pursuing a career in journalism or book publishing. I’m thrilled to say this is my first time being published. Break is a prose poem I wrote my senior year of college, and is one of my favorite pieces."
About the Work
"When you ask a kid what their favorite holiday is or what they want to be when they grow up, their answer will be instantaneous. Children have the freedom of seeing life for all the good it has to offer. Their favorite holiday is Valentine's Day because they like giving candy to their
friends, and they want to be a vet because they like animals. For them, it truly is that simple. On the other hand, when an adult is asked these questions their answer is more hesitant. It's hard to allow ourselves to only see the good once we've seen the entire picture. We can't see Christmas lights without remembering the stress of emptying our savings to buy gifts for friends and family.
I wrote "Break" my senior year of college, when the safety net of adolescence felt less present than ever. It's about the pain of realizing life won't be sugar-coated for you anymore, but it's also about the safety in realizing life isn't sugar-coated from anyone. While it might be harder to acknowledge the good in things, the bad makes us appreciate them more. It’s important to allow the kid in us to have a favorite holiday."
About the Author's Process
"For me writing has always felt visual. Whatever I write begins with the outline of an idea. It has a mood, a color, even a shape before any words are put to paper. I always know what a piece is supposed to feel like before I know what it's supposed to say. I have a yellow Five Star notebook that sees every step of the process. To start I make a bullet-point list of the first words that come to mind. A piece about a childhood dog might have words like nostalgia, comfort, loud, and reminiscent. Once I know what I want to say I map out its order. On the side of the paper I make an arrow from top to bottom planning out how I want the piece to feel. For example, if I want the piece to start pessimistic then end hopeful or start youthful and end mature. Then I'll organize some main words from the bullet-point list in an order that fits the emotional flow I want, and begin to expand the ideas. If I need research on a topic or notes of any kind I'll list them here. At that point I being free writing on each individual idea, then its time for retyping everything into a word document and final editing. The end product usually ends up being different from the initial brainstorming, sometimes a piece will turn into something new in editing, but the feel is always the same."
