Regret
Dark, screen lit, wet hair against the pillow
Typed regret in to the blank box
like it would tell me something new
I found were pages full of shadows
‘Sadness’ ‘repentance’ ‘disappointment’
Nothing soft, nothing I wanted to see
I place my fingers on the keyboard again
“Does regret ever go away?”
‘Linger for years’ ‘settles deep’
I wasn’t looking for that
Between the Stings
She eats a popsicle in the back seat
Cold enough to numb her teeth
The car seat burns the back of her thighs
The purple syrup runs down her wrist and onto her elbow
And bruises the carpet beneath her feet
At the pool, kids cannonball too close
The water splashes and stings her eyes
She floats on the water anyways,
listening to the shrieks muffled underneath the water
While the sun toasts her shoulders
The barbeque smells like charcoal and spilled soda
Bees hover over the juice pitchers
She watches one of them drown in the lemonade
She regrets not getting another cup
But the chips are salty and good
And the watermelon is cold enough to make up for it
The sun goes down, an orange slouch behind the fence line
The air starts to cool off and her hair is almost dry
She sits back in a sunbed laid out in the middle of the backyard
Someone left a towel bunched in the chair
It starts to smell
But she uses it as a pillow anyway
Mosquitoes start to come out as the sun disappears completely
Guests leave the house and the quiet of the night settles in
She heads to the old porch swing that no one ever uses
She brushes off the twigs and rearranges the cushions
Only to find an old lollipop melted and smothered into one of the pillows
In the dark, she walks back barefoot,
stepping on something sharp in the grass
It makes her flinch,
but she just rolls her eyes and keeps walking
She steps on to the cold kitchen tiles and shuts the door behind her
The Silence Between Us
You came back from the hallway trying to get wifi,
Failed, and layed on your bed
I kept writing, but couldn’t get anything done
In the corner of my bed, the goose sat still, its neck long and upright
We stayed up till’ late at night,
our knees on the floor and hands busy on our beds
Trying to finish our bio, history, and English homework at the same time
In the corner of my bed, the goose sat still, it’s fur soft, and an off-white color
The fight started over a misunderstanding,
Words were said too fast, then nothing for hours
But we both knew that we were going to be okay by tomorrow
In the corner of my bed, the goose sat still, it’s plastic eyes round and black
Facing each other, sitting on our beds with our legs crossed over
We asked a million stupid, hypothetical questions
“If I were a color, what would I be?” “You would be a werewolf if you were in Vampire Diaries”
In the corner of my bed, the goose sat still, it’s bright yellow feet stretched outwards
Irene Kim is a high school student who loves visual art and writing. Her work has been recognized in local exhibitions and school publications. When she’s not drawing or writing, she enjoys reading poetry, walking in the rain, and experimenting with collage. Irene hopes to continue creating work that captures both the quiet and the extraordinary.