by Audrey Wang
8 am
Wake to the chorus of canaries,
stream of sunlight enters through window and
eyes flutter open -
[Dream.]
8 am
Eyes flutter open immediately as she is startled by the strike of the church bell
Grasping the corner of her bedsheets she scans across her cold, empty room
A faint light shone on the torn corner of her room wallpaper
white but tinted with yellow.
She lifts herself from her bed, feeling a headrush as she rises,
Back sore from being arched from body curled
in sleep.
2 pm
She walks the streets with hesitant feet
streets far from the land she once knew well.
Ominous clouds glared down at her,
speaking in a language she found hardly understandable.
Autumn’s crimson leaves
crunched under her feet
like bones of an aging man.
Approaching her parked car on the side of the street,
she came to sudden realization that she
had left her car keys in the car.
5 pm
Back home where it didn’t feel like home, she shuts the window and closes the blinds
so no trickle of light can enter.
She opens the dictionary full of words that
scream out at her,
then changes TV channels without hesitation
never settling on one to watch.
So, she drags herself to her kitchen and makes
ramen for dinner
again.
11 pm
Eyes focused on the stain on
her bathroom mirror,
her toothpaste cap slipped out her fingers and fell into the drain
with a “plop”,
then silence.
She turned her head slightly to look out the window, seeing the moon and
thought to herself
I am alone.
even on the moon, Chang’e has Yutu
but I have no companion
I am stuck in the dark abyss of solitude.
Audrey Wang is high school sophomore who has a strong passion for writing poetry. She lives in Shanghai, China and goes to international school. Audrey is a member of her school’s literary magazine club and a member of the National English Honor Society, and has participated in the Kenyon Review Workshop this winter. Apart from creative writing, she enjoys reading romantic fiction, playing the violin, and video editing.