Summer 2024

Today’s theory
or rather, hypothesis:
one’s trajectory changes
completely every 1095 days.
Evidence:
2190 days ago,
I stepped foot upon this foreign
home. 1095 days ago,
your materialized in my life’s script,
your radiance disrupting my procedural
existence. Today,
we passed by, mere silhouettes
not a word more than “Excuse
me.” Variables:
How many cycles of 1095 days compose one’s
youth? Where will we be, after the next 1095
days?
do you still think about me too

 

Yufei (the word itself depicting the poetic imagery of rainfall in Chinese) is a high school student and aspiring writer living in northern California. She relishes in weaving her daytime reveries and nighttime fantasies into the assuaging tapestry of literature. When away from the pen, you can find her playing Studio Ghibli music on the flute, exploring local mountainous trails, or watching a captivating courtroom drama.

 

 

 

I’m espresso
As the romantics say
In the way that I energize & entertain
Add some cream and you’ll be set
I’ll be sweet
It’ll be brief

But, as I’ve learned,
I’m espresso also
In the way that too much of me
Makes you jittery
A punch in the gut before I leave

No, I know you’ll hightail it
At the tail end of your high
After a bit of steam
And the hope of being held—
it gets to be enough, too much
And then I put you to sleep

 

 

Sally Young is an emerging poet studying Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. She has previously published a poetry collection titled Light Through the blinds, and hopes to keep refining her craft to better the world.