I’ll take the long way home.
No one’s waiting for me.
My roommate brought his girlfriend home
Without thinking of me.
The house would echo love.
Their room would rival night:
Their curtains keeping all the world
Outside their candlelight.
The curtains of my heart
Were shredded years ago.
A woman, like a lioness,
Tore them — and tore them slow
And left the cut debris
Scattered across the floor.
I’m not avoiding just their love
But what’s behind my door:
My empty, messy room,
Another sleepless night —
Lying awake beneath the orb
Of towering moonlight.
I grip my blanket close,
Yet moonlight finds my heart. Like salt pressed on a wound, the moon
Re-lit what I forgot.
Writer | Christopher Onsomu ’29 | consomu29@amherst.edu
Editor | Sarria Joe ’27 | sjoe27@amherst.edu
Artist | Xyoa Wilding ’28 | xwilding28@amherst.edu