VALERIE BRAYLOVSKIY

​Valerie Braylovskiy (PO '25) is a poet from San Francisco, California.

A poet's religion

Every time I start a poem, I have an anxiety attack. Because what if God decides he is tired of funding my poetic pilgrimage and cuts me off. 
“You can never write again” 
I cry, my fingers paralyzed on a raw Californian morning, snow bleeds from my chalky lips. ​

Scientific Commentary on Coffee

​I am writing this in a coffee shop,
drinking a cup of coffee, struggling to
begin my personal critique on our
foolish obsession with the very object
I sip.
I already feel my neurons
disobeying their ruler.
They live in a drug cartel owned
by Adenosine.