Olivia Williams Poet Free verse

In Just A Minute

10:01 am

I have a million and one things to do
And it’ll be the first thing done when I get home
Because I don’t have anyone to distract me
Because I chose to live off campus

I live twenty minutes off campus
And now I have no friends
Everyone around me has friends
They have fun being away from their parents

If only I could get away from my parents
The only break I get is at work
That soul sucking job that isn’t really a break
I need a vacation away from it all

I could go on vacation to Europe again
And drink til I die of liver failure
But still my body would come back here
This body that I hate most days

Most days I can push all this down
Focus on the random thoughts that pass through
The ones that are blanketing every real problem
Using them to make my morning a bit more bearable

My morning walk on campus past groups of friends
Friends who are away from their parents
Who are free, even with school, this is their vacation
I look to them longingly wondering what if

What if I never get to be a part of one of those groups
Of friends that are unnecessarily diverse and happy
That sit on the grass with food and their unopened textbooks
Laughing about a joke that was never that funny to begin with?

10:02 am

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Alison A Smith October 4, 2026 at 12:21 AM The minute-by-minute frame is quietly devastating: “10:01 am” contains an entire spiral of isolation, resentment, self-loathing, and longing, while “10:02 am” makes clear how quickly—and repeatedly—such thoughts can flood a morning. The free verse moves with convincing, breathless accumulation, and the recurring images of friends, parents, campus, work, and “vacation” expose how trapped the speaker feels in every supposed escape.