UNTITLED

families are minor keys like Ramadan and honesty is powerful it crumbles like rusks
it sticks like hitchhiker skin just having some laughs during backlit dinners
dusty flat feet deserted and hiding thin wrists under medium weight jackets
lagging speech hesitating in ritardandos which are just that beautiful


letters are pieces peeling tumbling like pumpkins and bobbing like puppets
last year I saw you sit in filtered sunshine the room was like a cave but you
inspired it with flowers once I exchanged email addresses with a complete stranger
who intimidated me I didn’t like it and wished he was still bent and blooming


conviction it settles in an instant in the time it takes hangnails to bleed
in the time it takes to try honesty in the time it takes to go to school and come home
arched eyebrows like bird feathers from the rump while Satchmo’s lips buzz
anxious and psycho just please no more lists or anger or any of that teeth clenching business


only when we are alone and leaning real far away from yellow clouds
I didn’t miss it when you moved away just scratched my chin and slouched a little in my chair

JANE SHIM, UPenn 11'