this girl
she moves in bell-bottoms smiles walks down the sidewalk strokes the strands
of hair falling just above her breasts her crotch still burns from cheating on her
boyfriend her belly rolls over her jeans like thick syrup she doesn’t adjust her
shirt to cover it she offers one long exhalation flicks the ashes of her cigarette
away the street people watch her back arched against gravity they think that
the shape of her body is small compared to the world’s
Strolling through old stomping grounds, I hold hands with the twenty-nine year old me, now thirty-nine. She had just said yes to marriage; she had
grief that tastes of absent ice cream bars at the airport,
what is a welcome back to a hometown without a beloved tradition?
a perfectly sweet candy,
gummy to the mouth,
but sticking to the teeth.
konjac eaten too quickly can catch and choke.
gulp it down so that you can save yourself,
Illustration by Jill Kimura Written by Celeste Bloom Edited by Parivash Fahim Goff & Andrea Nevin Representation is everything. In grade school it was the
October 31st, 2012 I woke up super early to pack all my things for that evening– I was to go to the Ballet. It was one