red button
bloodshot
blood’s hot
stinging of the eye
burning sensation
a very familiar sensation
not what she want to feel but she
is the best at it
(Why stop now?)
wet momentum
crawling
down
her face
Doesn’t that feel sensational?
(Why stop now?)
flushing waters: her favorite pastime
locked doors: her signature piece
yet no one sees:
a closed exhibit
(So why stop now?)
tracing past, tracing a dotted line
wasting time
wasted time between space
missed opportunity
missed glances
i miss her.
tracing the past sporadically
isolating
glue nor tape will fix it
(She should stop.)
the pieces are already shredded
already erased
already lost
but she can’t accept that
(So she won’t stop.)
civil war – a battle on her homeland
opposition reigns on both sides:
the vibrations warm her
like the soldier’s boy beating of the drum
irregulars beats travel through her arteries, supplying some
thing worth living
the resilience chills her
like cool rain after a captain’s defeat
weathering storms she can not feel, wounded
gettysburg on her cortex
what side are you on?
pictures are timestamps
breaks in time
an endless loop is her
constantly spinning spiraling
constantly clicking that red button
bloodshot
constantly, momentum slithers down her face
sensational.
the same piece
yet not the same artist
(Who wants to see
her anyway?)
she’s a broken record instead
broken indeed
civil war – a fight she wants to end
(want it to stop?)
(it won’t.)
it can’t.
no break.
all hell breaks loose.
all (of) her breaks loose
shatters
A’Cora Hickson ’25 is a staff writer
ahickson25@amherst.edu
Cece Amory ’24 is a staff artist
camory24@amherst.edu