flutter ambience

siena ho shun yi

you said it would be fun to wake everyone up at 2:47am so we ran too much wearing too little. our fingers raw

from cobblestone, paper breaths edging onto winter ​​pulsing adrenaline into that cigarette you can’t stub out.

you said the neon lights are still on so we can learn to burn the same way- same way as in refracting the grey

puddles i deliberately avoid, sharp drag of air against lungs. asphalt is colder at night. half-silent streets and i

could have counted each indent, memorized its tiny curvatures, named them after every smile. amidst this i think

of your butterfly effect. yes, a butterfly flapped its wings and flung a tornado. yes, i screamed tonight and you

watched me. what are the possibilities? yes, i am in love with all the nightly things and you. the air is crisp. all but

the moon, we did it again.

Siena Ho Shun Yi is a junior from Hong Kong and Malaysia. She is recognised by the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, and her work is published or forthcoming in Kissing Dynamite Poetry and Brave Voices Magazine, amongst others.