Opera Length: i can't change the world by Isabelle Kim-Sherman (17, California)

​But i can make a new one. let me
Give you an example: two nights ago
i sucked beauty

Into my belly
Then heaved it out, churned gently
And sealed away wistful immortality,
Hexagonal

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i plunged a dipper in honey and twirled it
Until i tipped my head back, outstretched
my arms towards the thumb-
Smeared muddy sky swallowed

The cosmos whole i licked it up
And the burn was so sweet
It bit my tongue

Apologizing to the yellow smoke moon
Leering down at me, i wanted to say
i didn’t realize candles and forests are made
Of the same stuff. The wick catches
And wax smolders and pools–
Oily-iridescent like it’s staining something,
A dying something

my eyes adjusting to the dark. i think
i can feel the way air is calm the way nothing would taste
Space smells like gunpowder and there’s a ringing
in my ears. No,

i can’t change the world.
i can’t even save it.

All i can do is watch cars crawl up a mountain
With lights like so many bees
Or a string of pearls
Cool and heavy against my throat.