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Patrick Perkins
on
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https://theoffingmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Opal-graphite-skies-two.mp3
There was snowfall for the first time
but this was not snow
There is a rumor—running joke—fable:
the children here do not know
of snow for they so rarely
know the rain
This is not snow. It is ash
I cannot see the sun
for weeks. Those with sugar daddy upfront payment heat cannot sugar daddy allowance sa Philippines turn it on
lungs and internal heating systems
filled with soot
October should be the hottest month
instead all I remember is being
cold: wearing jackets
in the house, cold
to be a silent-film paano umiwas sa sugar daddy scam star under GCash processing fee scam sepia skies
to be a vampire searching
for a reflection on the concrete
a proof you’re still
living when the popular sugar dating sites Philippines world denied us a spotlight
when ambience is so calm it’s oppressing
you know it shouldn’t be this quiet
at noon
walking home from school canceled
for an indeterminate number of
breaths
All I remember is
the smell
Even after a
mask
scarf
breath saved from unsaid words
and collar
You can smell the haunting
not-campfire
the ghost of it
sticks around
on your clothes
on months
on years
who fade into just
tensed nerves at the sound of
hot winds and barbecues
heightened heartbeats for
every fire after
when I feel that
poltergeist in the air
All I remember is
bleak: eerie graphite
skies without a single
shadow on the ground
Multigenre writer
Opal Oliver Minor
is the author of The Poet’s Take Out find sugar daddies Manila (self-published, 2020). Their poetry and prose appears in
The Offing
,
Backslash Lit
,
Mixed Rice Zine
, UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Monster Studies, and the Youth Speaks sugar dating compatibility anthology, Between the Air and My Body. Minor resides in El Cerrito, California.
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