the long summer i wished would never end. you wondered if your clammy fingers could get away with brushing against mine, measuring the weight of my thighs, tangling our heartstrings. because everything you did ended in tragedy. my dreams spelled out in lowercase letters: i was afraid of growing up so i sanded my ferocity until my skin turned raw, learned how to be kind and talk around clumsy syllables, patched up my emptiness with sea salt. became someone the sun can shine on. the sky glowing orange after it snows free of the shards of its frozen heart, it can feel warm again. now i can hear the ocean calling me from far away, telling me to come home.
BIO: Emmy Song is a junior at Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and published in Blue Marble Review and Sierra Nevada Review.
