she by Allison Liu (16, Boston)

she is a vital one, a flare of summer sun
fashioned of strength and sweat, 
with eyes like wave-washed river stones and
cheeks so red i forget to be ashamed of mine. but
she is a soft thing, gaze gray like dove wings, skin
of sunset, budding rose of tender spring. ​

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she is the motion that catches the eye, the
lodestone, the anchor, sunk deep in my mind.
jasmine breeze and scent of salty sea, 
she is the summer rain that falls on me,
and lightning— 
unexpectedly. 
she is impossibility. 

she is the question and the answer, 
the electrifying tide that sets my mind alive
with perfect possibility and paralyzing fright--
that maybe i am made to live outside the lines. 

she is truth dredged deep from darkness
and brought before the light.
but if she is a star, she is a sun that burns too bright
because this sky holds tight to twilight, to its veiled
and ink-washed nights. 

so she is secret, sealed in silence, 
prismatic memory of mine. 
with every season that slips by, 
more of her vibrance fades to time. 
if she must die, she mustn’t smother 
like an ember as she hides. 
so i will scream into this sky 
the truth that blazes, bleeds, alive— 

i dream of sunset cheeks, 
of jasmine breeze, 
of summertime suspended 
in her sweet and silver eyes.

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Allison Liu is a 16-year-old Chinese American writer currently studying in the Boston area. She can often be found working on her novel, photographing the unusual, and reading speculative fiction. While she is a cat person through and through, she has nothing against cute dogs. Her work has appeared in Folio Literary & Art Magazine, is forthcoming in JUST POETRY!!!, and has been shortlisted in Crashtest Magazine.