aftershocks by Makenna Dykstra

it was a summer of colors

the ones you don’t see until a storm

tosses them on their heads

the tree outside my window fruits

and silkworms trap the lesser of the leaves

in an embrace of decay

it reeks of a life in prequel

before the cement sets and the lens

is painted over with a thick gloss

that blurs the world from view

soon enough the eye passed

the winds abated and the tree still stood

though the silk and its trappings

fled on the breeze

it was a summer of letting the bee

land and linger in your palm

relying on trust galvanized in primary color

painted childhood playgrounds to stay still

the glass remains shattered on the sidewalk and

the world’s view remains more beautiful

paint chips on the sand

and the sky in hues of inhalation

that seems more important

in the end

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Makenna Dykstra (she/her) is currently a graduate student pursuing an M.A. in English Literature at Tulane University in New Orleans. She can often be found on Twitter @makdykstra, planning her next bagel outing, or inundating everyone in her immediate surroundings with jellyfish fun facts.