EMERGING ARTISTS & WRITERS:
DIANA KHONG & NADIA JO
DIANA KHONG
HOME SALON
you watch your mother
run scissors, blackened
with fire, antiseptic, against
the wreath of your head,
she is singing—her voice
swaddled in tongues, yours
somewhere in your gut
netted in acid. a dirtied
patch of smoke tendrils
nestles to your ear—
saturnine from flame, your
skin translucent, hairs
collected in your navel. you
feel swollen, discontented.
rebirth—your skin melds
to a white wall. every
hand that touches you
dissipates. again, again—
you, this collection of
punctures, a nursery rhyme
that never made it to the
books. your mother runs her
hand against the backside of
your skull, and it feels heavy
and empty all at once. you are
crying now; in twenty years,
you ask yourself why
you remember the blade.
NADIA JO
GEOMETRY OF LIMITATIONS
It’s not what’s outside,
but how I’m confined in illusion.
I like to think that
rouge stains rubbing on clotted clouds
are afterthoughts of overlined lipstick
we only wear outdoors.
Too soon my skin soaks blue at dusk
and I draw the blinds
frightened.
Glass—nets—unsolved enigmas decaying in corners—
posters of what I am not—unread Flannery O’Connor—ghosts frozen in euphoria—
In truth, I don’t look out my window. Sometimes I am mesmerized
by heaven spilling through fissures.
Granite is not perfect.
Look how they crack along footsteps.
Brick roads are uneven, and so are the shadows of bodies believing they are unseen.
With music flickering in the background they can continue pretending they are
forever.
Look at how the sun fades. Look at how the boy I once loved tilts his chin toward God.
If I had to reproduce the sky I do not know who could complete such a task.
Lanterns try to trick me
There cannot be so many suns at the same time
It’s dark outside
when I don’t look
I am always silent
I chew on my own words
Diana Khong is a full-time poet and part-time ghost. She's founder and editor-in-chief of Kerosene Magazine and is staff at Noble Gas Quarterly, Ascend, and Red Queen Literary Magazine. Her work specializes in female sexuality, decolonization, and the shape of mouths. For updates, you can find her frequenting social media on Twitter and Tumblr, both @deerthrum.
Nadia Eugene Jo is a student at Deerfield Academy, an independent boarding high school in Massachusetts. Her works have been recognized by Creative Communication and the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. She lives in South Korea.