Beginning in elementary school, and all throughout junior high, “the system,” never taught Assyla Asylum how to handle her emotions, and the staff members weren’t paid enough to deal with her prepubescent bullshit. As a result, they would simply slap a sucker in her mouth. This led to a vicious cycle of bad behavior being rewarded with lollipops followed by intense meltdowns. These habits, of sugarcoating her meltdowns, carried into her teenage years and still linger in her twenties. But maybe now they aren’t literal suckers, rather little lies she tells herself to make the pain taste a little bit sweeter. Assyla’s debut poetry collection, SUGAR RUSH, will take you through a series of meltdowns that only the most delectable assortment of treats could suppress.