volatility: francium, plutonium, and uranium in this order

Senna Xiang

i long for wistful hysteria, dreamer of faerie lands and smoky lungs
this lonely heart quarters the mythical essences of insolent, magical girls -
girls that in a once-upon-a-time, faraway fairytale i would have despised.
angry white sanitarium buzz of high-school stairwell lights,
flicker incandescent, and a distant door slams shut, ringing
tinnily through our ears and all along our clothes, bea and i
run our fingers, threading little longings of fear, that when we
inevitably get caught, our punishment won’t be detention for
a week, or two, or even three. our punishment will be argus’s
gods-given judgmental eyes, except only this time beautiful hera
is reincarnated into her cruelest of forms: perfect, proper, prim
high-school girls who whisper dyke in the hallways. they crush
your gossamer-gold essence, grind it finely to pulverized ache.

rose tank top; july’s flushed heat –
– brushes shoulders like a kiss
of guilt-tipped feather dust –
– queer disease of the heart
you bestowed to me on march –
– 13th at sundown in your tiny
silver-scratched corona toyota –
– first light is weak, shaking gray
then pirouettes of gold spiral –
– painted lady in sequins looks
over our heads like we don’t exist –
– bloom of violent green chry
santhemums on your mother’s –
– tiffany-blue glass envy table
effortlessly timeless, us in –
– the corpse-stiff embrace of
youth, expiry date unknown –