by Jacelyn Yap
What Burns
The morning glories never flowered.
Vines clog the fence line without
violet interruption. It is so easy
to misread violet as violent.
Imagine me
ripping vines like weeds,
setting the pile
on fire. Flames catch
the dried branches of the pine tree,
burning trunk to tip. Fire jumps
from limbs to rooftop
and the whole house blazes
orange and red,
blue and violent.
I once held my breath underwater for three minutes
longing to drown.
Once stood in front of the mirror for an hour
knife to my throat
trying.
Somewhere, a version of me
knows how to be happy.
She sits on a mountaintop
where leaves turn to water in the wind,
and golden trees spark
like matches against the morning sun.
The day breaks open
with gray dew and blue mist,
a violet awakening.
Claire Taylor is the author of multiple chapbooks, including her latest, One Good Thing, from Bottlecap Press. She is the founding editor of Little Thoughts Press, a kid-lit magazine featuring writing and artwork by both adult and youth creatives. Claire’s debut picture book, Benjamin’s Sad Day, is forthcoming from Golden Fleece Press. You can find her online at clairemtaylor.com, on Twitter @ClaireM_Taylor, and on Bluesky or Instagram as @ctaylorwrites. Claire lives with her family in Baltimore, MD in an old stone house where birds love to roost.
Jacelyn Yap (she/her) recently started focusing on her art proper, having persevered through an engineering major and a short stint as a civil servant. Her artworks have appeared in adda, Chestnut Review, The Lumiere Review, Barren Magazine, and more. She can be found at https://jacelyn.myportfolio.com/ and on Instagram at @jacelyn.makes.stuff.