THREE POEMS
by Winter Yim
ON THE NEWS THEY SAID IT WAS A REALLY BAD DAY FOR YOU AND THIS IS WHAT YOU DID
​
a virus mutation, you are
a living hell. empty shelled
prison jumpsuit, tightened
lapel, a reminder of who
you angered, who controls
your fate, living in hell —
a bad day.
but which bad day
is the one that takes
eight lives? is it
the shoe stuck gum / or fender
bender / weird substance
on the bus seat / apartment keys
forgotten
in the thrifted trinket dish /
broken down car
on the way to work / cracked
phone / and glasses lost / knocked
over plant pot / lightbulb out
and shirt spilled coffee / fight
with lover / food stamps
cutoff?
​
​
WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE HALF (FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT AREN’T)
after Patricia Smith
​
first of all, it’s fourth grade self-portraits
and leaving yours unfinished. it’s fists clinging
to demographic forms, suppressed from waking
into an official statistic. it’s half proclaiming
your fifth grade allegiance, it’s your erasure
from chalkboards cloudy in white. it’s strangers’
guesses and expectations. it’s bedroom walls
lacking posters of idols. it’s punching corners of
your eyes, weighted in insecurities greater than
oceans, it’s crying down your half-moon face in
silence. it’s eighth grade with friends, calling
yourselves pretty in two dimensional reflections.
it’s a bonfire inside, too wild to tame,
then eventually
turning invisible
flame.
​
​
WHY I CUT MY HAIR
​
Tendrils sagged
with fatigue
from years
of sucking
it in, from keys
men use to unlock
glass cases at CVS.
Clippers, sizes eight to one
guide combs lined
the porcelain sink, glistened
under electric spotlights.
​
Strands of sentences, wrangled
into silver shears, positioned
to die, guillotined
into limp cylinder
corpses the bath mat
cushioned eternal.
​
Tresses of shoreline, spoken
over, spoken
at, spoken
for.
​
My neck could breathe.
​
* * *
​
Winter (they/them) is an emerging writer from Massachusetts and currently based in New Jersey. They have taken workshops taught and curated by contemporary poets Porsha Olayiwola, Jared Harél, Chibbi Orduña, Danielle Legros Georges, and Xan Phillips. Their writing covers themes such as home and belonging, identity, and queerness.