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    • Staff 2021 -22
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  • Issues
    • A Fire of Words
    • Editor's Note 2022 >
      • The Floor Wallows Lower
      • Cornflowers
      • Erudite
      • That One Morning
      • mom, im afraid
      • selenophilia
      • Roses and Rainbows
      • If a poisonous snake bites itself, will it die?
      • Rochester
      • Crown of Branches
      • Stairs to the Sea
      • A Poem Written Entirely From Advertisements
      • Pyromania
      • silhouette of a bird against winter stars
      • thunderstorm in the bedroom
      • A Night in Recovery
      • sleeping gypsie
      • paper dolls&goodbyes
      • We Are Women
      • Village Air
      • Sunshine's Laughter
      • the male gaze
      • The Forensic Entomologist
      • Lacking
      • Drowning
      • Adelie
    • Create the Wonders We Dream (2021)
    • Editor's Note >
      • Zove
      • I'm Sorry
      • Fake Smile
      • My Friend the Balloon
      • Eyes Intertwined
      • Perfect
      • Only a Moment
      • A Dangerous Word
      • My Dreams
      • The Last 100 Meters
      • The Green Void (Villanelle)
      • The Whimsical Galaxy (Sestina)
      • The Silent Kindness
      • Pressure
      • Table on the Hill
      • The Yukon
      • The Shore
      • Repentance
      • Her and I
      • Infections of the Soul
      • Threads
      • Dream of a High Schooler
      • Empty
      • little flame
      • scars
      • black and white
      • The Cat
      • Joy
      • Sweet Honey Bee Stings
      • If There Were One Day
      • Delete
      • Our Hearts to Central Vietnam
      • him or Him?
      • Ocean
      • Es Llaner Beach
      • Sewn Together
      • Rain
      • Yes, I Like
      • The Legacy of the Moon
      • The Wind Whimpers
      • From Here I See
      • To Feel Clean
      • Red
      • Survival
      • Substance
      • Golden Lies
      • Midnight Tango
      • Ode to a Spleen
      • Modern Siren
      • The Night's Diamond Tears
      • Beats In Double Time
      • A Day in the Flight
      • Carved By Venus
      • Lifeline
      • Everest
      • Education
      • How Much of Reality Can Be Observed
      • What is a Spork
      • What is the difference between love and in love
      • What would you have wanted? me to say
      • Planet Caravan
      • The Journey of a Minute
      • The Circus of Scars
      • Mosaic
      • Color
      • Love and Acceptance
    • Colors I Never Knew Existed (2020)
    • Her Voice Remains (2017)
    • Watch Every Second (2018)
    • Words Become Reality (2019)
  • Blog
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A Night in Recovery
​​By: Louise Kim

Picture
An apple falls from the tree.
I fall from my bed, eyes wide, pain starting to
Blossom from my spine / nerves / vertebrae / stacked
Like the thylakoids in the stoma,
Making its own food. The sunflower is
Self-sustaining, but we are destined
To live off the food we create for ourselves
In our kitchens, in our classrooms, 
The latter is more lasting.
The stoichiometry problems lay like boulders on my shoulders,
A dynamic equilibrium is reached in the heart.
The titration, the pH changes as the color
Shifts from clear, to a sky blue
Only visible in the fortnights of August.
Then it gets darker. A navy, the pH rises
Over the limit. A basic solution now,
The thick clouds cover the
approaching night. December afternoons
When the sun retreats to rest and I
Come home, keys between fingers,
The sunflowers fading and dying, but it 
Won’t be long until they take a peek at the sky
To see if light emerges from the 
Concrete buildings.
Writer's Statement: Themes from my studies in chemistry and biology inspired me to write this poem. In this more abstract piece, I blur the borders between myself and the rest of nature, while recounting the cycle of a day in my life.
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