(after Franny Choi)
It is a
rainy day, like a fever.
Never ending, the sun is dead
& I’m avoiding meat
for now. It’s strange how butchered
things taste good. I’m the kind of girl
Who writes poems chopped
& fragmented, then puts them together. Now we’re grown up
& I wish I had a balcony to watch the sunset &
see the city, watch it cradled
in lights. What if I slept in,
nestled like styrofoam
in boxes. Would you
throw me away? I am candid
in job interviews. You are a cannibal.
How else can you
sustain yourself? I want
to graduate but I don’t want to leave, what’s there for me?
Take a bite
of this heart-sized
thing we call life. There is no
alternative, open your eyes
to the oil clogging
the pores on your
face, to the words stopped in your throat.
Olivia Hom was born and raised in New York City. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Mount Holyoke College in May 2024 with a degree in English. Olivia was selected to be on the committee for the Glascock Intercollegiate Poetry Contest, the longest running undergraduate poetry contest in the nation. She enjoys creative writing, especially poetry. Olivia also enjoys taking walks, photography, and watching plays, musicals, and films. She is currently an intern with W.W. Norton & Company.