Sleeping Sky by Kendall Rhee (California)

i am so drained 
from the static. A 
    tide incessant cannot tell
    another to collapse. but /
  when / i drown / in pools of
          ebony / you watch 
 the girl 
who taught herself 
           to shatter in unfeeling, 
    the girl who split herself
​open into halves 
when staring at the belly
         of a fruit bowl. ​

---

what if i told you 
  i dream in fragment 
 too- 
       that our words have 
 strung each other 
    so tight in emotion 
            neither of us 
 can speak. tell me 
   you are a facade created in
my open palm 
     so i wouldn’t have to stay
   awake watching my eyelids
​      falter.

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Kendall Rhee is a Korean-American poet from California. She is a Junior at Cate School and an alumna of the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio. Kendall's work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and she was named a 2021 California Arts Scholar in Creative Writing. Kendall hopes to use her poetry as a means to speak out on topics of identity, mental health, Anti-Asian hate, and discrimination.