Yellow tinted tiles
Invade the walls
Caffeine heavy air slips past my tongue
Arms outstretched, I fill my lungs
with dust,
Forgotten things crawl up my skin as
Patchwork memories nest,
Between my shoulder blades and,
Basil blooms in my chest,
I look for you in chipped cupboards.
Behind drapes still saturated with the sharp smell of mint
Orange peels drying in the sun
I look for you in the folds of recollection.
Carefully unfurl each corner
Swat away buzzing ghosts
Mind the damage
Kiss the scorch marks
Where the pattern curls and distorts
Trace the shape of your smile
Of our eyes,
From when we were one
Baby teeth and tutus
Straining tiptoes for tabletops
I’m older now.
And you are everywhere I’m not.
So I look for you in the kettle
Choking down sweet rot
Vanilla with a hint of blood
The taste of time.
This room seemed so much bigger then.
And yellow tinted tiles
Armor the floor,
Warm wooden spires shield and surround you
Grasp the legs tightly
Swallow breath
Teacups make light sleepers
Muscles coiled with electric potential
Coffee stained crockery confers with
The ceramic centerpiece
Waiting,
Both poised to betray you
Wait,
At the slightest disturbance
Waiting,
Rooster clock caws
Loud enough to cover you
Exploding out
Table shaking
Not enough to cover your laughter
Battle cry
Kitchen chair fortress
Little knight in pillow plating
I turn just quick enough to catch your escape
Jasmine Watson's short story "I Still Burn" won first prize in the Tenth Annual Humanities & Sciences Undergraduate Writing Contest. Jasmine is an animation major in the class of 2024. She has always loved writing, and has a special fondness for surrealism and abstraction. She has moved around all her life, 8 times before 10th grade, across several countries, and the resulting mixture of wanderlust and nostalgia continues to inform all of her work.