ISSUE ONE
FALL 2020
R&R:
RECOVERY & RESILIENCE
Recovery
By Aaliyah Salia
Art by Steven McCrystal
It’s that phase of our relationship,
where you leave me in my own dark room,
where you place all our polaroids.
and just vanish as if all our memories never happened.
But soon,
we’ll arrive at the phase where you’ll come back to me,
with the chocolates and the wine,
where you’ll whisper the same promises you whispered to me,
and tell me that everything would be fine.
I would believe you,
because I care about you,
because I trust you,
I would believe you in an instant,
and then you would embrace me,
gluing back my broken pieces.
You would recover me from the life I thought I had lost,
you would bring me back to a place I thought was ugly and vast and, unfriendly.
I would be the happiest woman in the world then,
I would sing and dance,
and play around with you like a kid who just got her favorite candy.
From strangers to soul mates,
we will go through the phases of our life,
because what good is a relationship if we don’t break it,
and recover from it?
![](https://drexelpaperdragon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/PaperDragonLogo-No-Words-150x150.png)
Aaliyah Salia
Aaliyah Salia is a self-published author of The 13: We all Start as Strangers, a passionate poet, blogger, script-writer, and freelance writer. She has published many short stories on Wattpad, is featured in anthologies, and strives to become a best-selling author and poet. She is also a cat lover and can’t live without coffee and her hamster.
![](https://drexelpaperdragon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/PaperDragonLogo-No-Words-150x150.png)
Steven McCrystal
Steven McCrystal lives in a town called Bo’ness in Scotland. He started painting in Art Therapy and found the creative outlet very beneficial. It helped him come to terms with the traumas he’d been through and enabled him to look at his troubles in a different light.
McCrystal enjoys painting abstract art, but his repertoire also consists of emotive work and elements of his bipolar experiences. He has found that there is nothing better than feeling an emotional connection to the art he produces and hopes viewers of his art find that same connection.