Volcano Town

Over centuries.

The life-giving mountain.

When molten, amber.

Burning coconut husk.

To matte, ashen gray.

Then gun-metal blue.

Then gone below.

Sunken behind the mirror.

Surface, leaves behind

The soupy world of.

Time-broken bleached, shark teeth reefs in youth.

Wrapped taught like a singing moonstone bow.

School of lost children.

Fish sequin flashing of light.

Footfall softened by coarse sand.

To the shallows. Scrapes on jagged coral.

Twin knees that bleed and bleed.

Seabird’s childish squawking.

Shark fin warnings.

Saltwater in a perfectly ro.

Und lagoon.

A whale shark's hellish, mottled hue.

I Don’t Know His Name

Six minutes with teeth grit

at the slant fall of snow

Seven, I realize this very wind

carried my dad off our sunstricken isle

eventually taking me with it.

All the luxuries of freedom in

the infinity of a newborn

You had better things to fucking do?

Shit. Sorry, Dad. That was ungrateful.

I know raising me is a damn chore.

Anyways… Did you know babies can

sense abandonment? Laughable,

23, it’s nearly tangible.. 

It’s the buoy keeping me

afloat in an abysmal lake.

I could just sink, forget.

Or crawl up the riverbed.

It’s someone like my mom getting acupuncture

the confusing awareness of pinpricks

without understanding

why? how? Did my mom try to stop you?

What did leaving us feel like? Did you like it?

I exhale smoke. Did you know I smoke?

You’re not disappointed, I hope.

Multiple exes have asked for my birth time while reading my tarot.

I don’t suppose you know?

I can ration out my thoughts of you.

A moment to last

more than a year.

I remembered you existed

on New Years.

You’ve been occupying my mind violently

completely unwelcome. I feel powerless

to making you leave, but I know

I’ll figure it out eventually.

That can be my resolution.

Annar Amram, 23, is a proud and floundering Pacific Islander. As a transracial adoptee, they wound up living in Oregon. They owe their love of poetry to AO3, Alt-J, and their best friends.