squatting knee-deep in a city's cynicism

look. down the street, classmates wailing & wobbling on gelatin thighs

unfamiliar in lumpy bodies. clotted milk gushes from gaping mouths, onto

asphalt

it rots.

scratch out the bitterness in my eyelids & bury yesterday. look, the wonton

stall is open : let yesterday's rice regurgitate for breakfast &

pretend my mother isn't looking.

someone is shrieking from the second floor. piss sits deeper in potholes

+ collects in beggars pockets. wring my hands of wishes, lower my head

continue on

petrichor soaks the dappled skies, leeches it of brilliance. look, the school

bell

has rung &

i'll walk to school in the sewers. rub the ash off my knees.

Naomi Ling is a Sino-American student poet and editor on the East Coast, USA. Her poetry and prose often grapple with identity, nostalgia, and most importantly of all, returning to her roots. The Editor-in-Chief of up-and-coming Gossamer Lit and an editor for Interstellar Review, her work has been recognized with National Gold and Silver Medals by the Scholastic Writing Awards, is a Top Ten winner of the 2020 Poetic Power Contest, and is published or forthcoming in Cathartic Lit, Heritage Review, Ice Lolly Review, and Trouvaille Review, among other journals. She strongly believes that inspiration strikes her best when she closes her eyelids at night. Find her at https://naomilingg.carrd.co/.