Alexis Wu

we are living on summer days

with periwinkle skies the color of eyes

& paper minds that could blow away in the wind.

My hair smells like smoke—I would choke

on the scent if I could, but there is so much more to love:

petrichor, verity, & jumping

in muddy rain puddles that could drown a small animal,

reveling in our warped reflections.

Oh, baby,

I want to write an elegy, but I must settle for sonnets, spiraling into stardust like fools with futures.

Come & listen close: sweaty nights by the bay, wishing ourselves into daylight, we are lovers, this is purgatory,

this is all the things we said to our mothers,

the words we choked on like a pill taken dry.

On days like these, all I want to do is dream. & run & disappear into the twilight & finally be free to fly.

I want to hallucinate fever dreams with our hands clasped together as tight as a noose.

I am living on delusions of a horizon & summer

days the color of lilac.

You smell like smoke & life & rain. Let

me fly away on a windless day, let the humid air sink

into your bones, let sonnets become elegiac in our pining ears. All I am is a paper heart, & so are you.

‘Cause baby, oh baby,

we’re casket lovers, so let’s fly away into the moon.

Alexis Wu is a 13-year-old Chinese-American poet from Long Island, New York. She co-authored Under the Deep, a poetry collection that explores society, selfhood, and truth. Her work has been published in Aorta Literary Magazine. She is also a member of the Write Cause newsletter team. She should probably stop romanticizing her life and start living it—but where’s the fun in that? Find her on Instagram @a.w.underthedeep.poetry.