summer contemplations
By Annie Yang
“Growing up is losing some illusions, in order to acquire others.”—Virginia Woolf
&we were fourteen, time standing still on wobbly tiptoes/lavender summer stretching endless like asphalt roads desperate to meet horizon sun/tepid air unraveling into dazzling dimensions like counting 1234 and everything in between/like neon-eyed yo-yos, spinning/summer, and we say there must be something more, something/half-forgotten, aching softly in between–//like//between the tongue and the teeth the taste of damp july winds stolen off the shores of black and white sanya beaches in mama’s old photos/between the iris and the cornea the reflection of a thousand blooming fireworks born for most extravagant death/ between the dawn and the dream the fleeting silhouette of a childhood home sinking into amnesic atlantic
saltwater&you asked where do we return to now?/between the lips and the lies the solemn syllables of a pinky promise, palpable eternity intertwined between fingers sticky with june sweat & strawberry ice cream/between the breath and the heartbeat a splendid silence falling in the bewildered whites of my eyes/between the reach and the touch the clandestineness of a boundless infinity we are destined to chase after forever, trapped in the narrowness between parentheses on old algebra worksheets&we told ourselves that someday/we would make it/to metamorphosis/and trade outstretched fingers for blossoming hearts//until//silence spills into words/and season collapses onto stirring time/and distance shrinks until it is just nothingness stretched to the brink of breaking/across a phone line/&now, i tell you there’s static on the call, blame it all on a nameless satellite stranded so lonely on the cusp of empty space/&pretend i can’t hear your sob, or is it just a sigh/
and you said, we are always just too old and too young.
About the Author...
Annie Yang is a high school junior who was born and raised in Shanghai; but currently attends Wellesley
High School in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She loves reading and writing, and is currently a Senior Editor as
well as Fundraising Commission Poet at Polyphony Lit. Besides literature, she also enjoys music and
technical theatre.
About the Artist...
Jason Galub is an 11th grade Visual Artist at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. They use bright colors and acrylic paint to create fluidity and dynamic looks.