June, 2020 We, as The Indicator’s Chief Editors, would like to take the space to pledge our commitment and solidarity alongside the Black community and people of color. While there are no words that can encapsulate all the pain and frustration so many feel, we want to acknowledge the suffering and outrage of those who…Continue Reading The Indicator’s Statement of Solidarity and Action
Archive
Forever Green
RIS PAULINO
I scale the cracked shingles, the roof warm beneath my palms, / each grip a reminder that not all heights can be measured in feet. / The sun slips sideways, brushing against the window panes, / and I stand there, taller than the house that never grew with me. / I look off toward the sunset, / and see a treeline—…Continue Reading Forever Green
Stepping
LILA SCHLISSEL
And everybody’s showing a rib-cage to the / rib-watchers, head thrown back/throat exposed so we can see the / ridges do you see me we are asking / don’t you see us…Continue Reading Stepping
The End of the World

SARAH WU
He dreams of a little girl screaming. This is a constant dream. He is holding a needle….Continue Reading The End of the World
Evergreen
CAMILA MASSAKI GNOMES
I wonder if you know the pain of wishing as I do, of longing for the absurd. And it is foolish to ask. Perhaps you understand longing in a way that I never could.
Have I told you of the drive? …Continue Reading Evergreen
Elegy for the Evergreen
WILLOW DELP
Evergreens watch throughout the bitterest winters: unchanging, unsympathetic. The weather strikes down its peers: thick snow weighs down their branches until they sink, limping underneath the pressure, and eventually succumbing to white blankets of frost. …Continue Reading Elegy for the Evergreen
Words Unsaid
EMILY WYKOFF
You are full of empty promises / Lies hidden in kind equivocations / I’m tired of running in circles, chasing my tail / Trying to chase you …Continue Reading Words Unsaid
Dendrochronology of the Clam
CLARA DANHOF
if you take a continent and replace it rock by rock, just one at a time until there’s not a single piece of original material left, is it really the same continent at all?…Continue Reading Dendrochronology of the Clam
Starchild 11:25
CHELA CUNNINGHAM
i’ve been to the movies six billion times and kept every ticket. i’ve raged and written. lined up all my bodies and carefully selected who i wanted to be that night….Continue Reading Starchild 11:25
The Buyer
EDWYN CHOI
“Incredible,” the buyer answered, still looking up. If the plot of trees were a painting, he resembled a smear on the finished canvas, a sharp, dark smear. The wind was not blowing anymore. He felt a little warmer. …Continue Reading The Buyer
DRAG SELF-PORTRAIT ACROSS JUPITER & ALL THAT COMES BACK IS IN NYX EYELINER & THE FEAR OF DYING NOT EVEN GORGEOUS
AIDAN COOPER
In all my experience the boy /
has what it takes to break / away, unfurl the tootsie roll / lollipopped in the cherry
…Continue Reading DRAG SELF-PORTRAIT ACROSS JUPITER & ALL THAT COMES BACK IS IN NYX EYELINER & THE FEAR OF DYING NOT EVEN GORGEOUS
A Collection of Life
GRACE ESCOE
I have never understood the want to / Live forever / Be ever young / To never age / Evergreen…Continue Reading A Collection of Life
Untitled
GABRIELA WEAVER
We hadn’t spoken a word – well, discernable word – for an hour. My fingertips filled the void of silence, grazing your skin, circling your collarbones. I rested in the crook of your neck, forehead pressed to your cheek. My eyes followed the lines I drew on your skin. I lifted my chin to trail kisses up your neck before meeting your gaze with my own. …Continue Reading Untitled
Green Apple Walls
HADLEY HUNT
the painted lavender walls watched me since birth.
the floral printed sheets bathed me since my chubby toes
first touched the ground. the smells of all things fresh and innocent,
doors always open,
windows tipped upwards,
sweet experiments concocted in the kitchen down the hall….Continue Reading Green Apple Walls
Snapshots of Dust
BRADY KIM
I visited my father’s house last week. I straightened the picture frames on his nightstand, the glass caked with so much grime and filth that you couldn’t even make out the picture. I swept the dust from the lonely halls, the wallpaper cracking and peeling at the top so it cast a shadow across the wall when you turned on the buzzing yellowish lights….Continue Reading Snapshots of Dust
From the Porch
GEORGE HENRY
From Aunt Zell’s porch, I see myself etched into clumps of baked coral that have clambered out of the sea & up this hill
where they pretend to be rocks but only fool themselves…Continue Reading From the Porch
Haircut
SARAH GOLDSCHMIDT-HOPKINSON
You look different. This time your hair is [red / pink / blonde] and I love it. You are [as beautiful as the last time I saw you / as beautiful as the last time I saw you / as beautiful as the last time I saw you].
…Continue Reading Haircut
I need you

ZOE ALARCON
you’re born into the ripe age of freedom
jaded children rowdy roar, hungry stuffed on chicken patties
girls can be whatever they want to be!
…Continue Reading I need you
Winter

DARBY REDMAN
I am surrounded by clumps of trees, barren and apathetic. We walked this path when we were young, the sun spotting through trees and bees bumbling along the flowers….Continue Reading Winter
Wash
ODESSA IKELS
Claire crouched in the cool wet sand, marveling at how the topwater surrounded the sides of her feet, small sandals abandoned behind her. The ocean roared in her left ear, cliffs invading her peripheral vision as she examined the place where the water meets the shore….Continue Reading Wash
In This Litany, A Lost Lantern

KAREN LEE
This kind of day called for an intervention of sorts, or at the very least, a grand meeting at the town hall located in the heart of Lanternland, where all the lanterns would gather and take stock of the situation. …Continue Reading In This Litany, A Lost Lantern
Mango

BEA AGBI
I didn’t want the mango. I didn’t / want it I was full Just let me have a bit / but my mother said no bites, / peeling and putting it / into my hands, yellowredgreen soft / and malleable in its ripeness, eat / the whole thing. …Continue Reading Mango
Devour
BRIANNA ZHANG
It is baffling that these people garner millions of likes, considering how they spend twenty four hours like it’s nothing! Sleeping through a third of the day—unbelievable. Ten minutes of meditation? It took me one hour to complete university……Continue Reading Devour
family dinner: still life in silence and salt
HANNAH KWON
and this salt would spread quickly, like grief / always does, trickling into red pepper paste / and flakes of anchovy skin, salt desecrating / the soup we’d double-dip our spoons into, / so when metal met our lips, …Continue Reading family dinner: still life in silence and salt
In Lieu of Language
MADI SUH
in lieu of language, / i stuff my mouth. / i do not know how to say the words for all the banchan. / i only know how to eat, / how to be hungry, how to ask for more….Continue Reading In Lieu of Language
Lunch-Box Note
OLIVIA TENNANT
Good cooking requires time and patience – neither of which my mother has. Born and raised by Chinese parents in New York, aggression, assertiveness, hostility, hard work, and short-temperedness are inherent personality traits built into her blood. My mother stops for nothing in order to achieve success. Except for in the kitchen. …Continue Reading Lunch-Box Note
Growing Pains
By FEDORA LIU
So sugary sweet / It rotted my teeth // Back then there were boundless pools of sap here / I thought I would never go hungry // I thought I would live forever….Continue Reading Growing Pains
Spiced Apple Cake
MACKENZIE DUNSON
The last thing my mother made for me was an apple spice cake. She always took pride in it because of the expansive apple tree that was the luminary of our backyard. It has always been the most beautiful thing about our house. The branches reaching for the sky, leaves and breath filling my own lungs, its fruit filling my stomach, and its blossoms filling my mind….Continue Reading Spiced Apple Cake
Rose Colored Boxes
RUTH ZURAW
Our morning-stretched shadows / graze, overlap on the pavement— / heat curling around calves / in gentle waves. …Continue Reading Rose Colored Boxes
Bringing

LILA SCHLISSEL
She will bring me gifts / teeth and black licorice lips cradling some / bird / with hollow bones / and lay / it / in my lap / unscathed, if confused / and / covered in a little spit…Continue Reading Bringing
One More Bite
OLIVIA KELLER
Every day is the same. / Wake up, go to class, do work, go to bed. / Like clockwork – tirelessly stuck in a loop going tick by tock. / Boredom sets in and my thoughts wonder….Continue Reading One More Bite