i.
dreams continue to wither & fade behind
gloomy paint-peeling doors; will you succumb to
your own consternation?
the honey is laced with poison, so
stir in covert fructose imposters–
they’ll drink your stomach acid &
splatter it against the walls in the
shadows: beset with the throes of
femininity, you bleed once more
into your open palm: tea dripping
into porcelain saucer.
ii.
silent dissension seems tangible in
the dark, saccharine uneasiness
vying for your tastebuds’ attention:
the cloying smell of your vitreous humor
set aflame. hope owes you no favors–
she leaves you suffocating in the night,
acid in your uterus, ash on your
tongue, concrete filling your rib cage.
iii.
optic struggles, neurotic mindset:
& you gasp as nitric oxide floods your trachea.
vaseline in your salivary glands, sweat in your
follicles, hands on the doorknob, desperate
to burst into the light– & tenebrosity grabs your
ankle, shoving you back into the filth that is
the time after sleep but before streetlights
ignite. witching hour paints constellations on
your hammering chest: your blood, your tears,
your pigment, your penumbra.
cadaver girl, living husk; your heart thrums,
but your aorta is rubber: a charlatan beneath your lungs.
your irises dim, your pupils dilate,
& you’re left in the dark with smoky green tea,
unsweetened and ashen, just as you despise.
Mia Golden (she/her) is a teen writer from California with a passion for activism and love for all things chocolate. She is an editor at Interstellar Lit. Mia is published or forthcoming in Indigo Lit and the Trouvaille Review, among others. She hopes you have a great day!