My sister scrubs sand
off of calcium carbonate
like lyrics—the tune always hiding
at the base of her tongue
when she looks at me.
A tiger’s cry, arched stripes:
my bod(y/ies) curl(s) inwards
on kitchen floors of glorified twilight.
Each chamber cradles its predecessor.
There is a reason humans
have a way of becoming spoons.
Time does too.
Fibonacci’s perennial staircase,
my optical illusion. Her eyes say
it’s a descent,
sometimes to car(e/ry).
My sister brushes her locket aside,
lends the shell her rhythms
like a deity casts vellum molds
with whispered breaths—awaits.
She is a violet crescent
on the waterfront: jumpsuit-moon
mobilizing tidal froth,
dripping salt like a phoneme
swallowed in the decrescendo
of its own word. She always
leaves shells where she finds them.
At dawn she returns, a girl now,
asking me if it is too late.
off of calcium carbonate
like lyrics—the tune always hiding
at the base of her tongue
when she looks at me.
A tiger’s cry, arched stripes:
my bod(y/ies) curl(s) inwards
on kitchen floors of glorified twilight.
Each chamber cradles its predecessor.
There is a reason humans
have a way of becoming spoons.
Time does too.
Fibonacci’s perennial staircase,
my optical illusion. Her eyes say
it’s a descent,
sometimes to car(e/ry).
My sister brushes her locket aside,
lends the shell her rhythms
like a deity casts vellum molds
with whispered breaths—awaits.
She is a violet crescent
on the waterfront: jumpsuit-moon
mobilizing tidal froth,
dripping salt like a phoneme
swallowed in the decrescendo
of its own word. She always
leaves shells where she finds them.
At dawn she returns, a girl now,
asking me if it is too late.
Danae Younge is an award-winning biracial and bisexual poet who attends Occidental College as a rising sophomore. Her work has been internationally recognized by such publications as Bacopa Literary Review, Salamander Magazine, Invisible City Literary Journal, The Curator, and over twenty others as well as five worldwide print anthologies. Website: danaeyounge.com; Instagram: @danae_celeste_.