“Dear demi-winter,” by Michelle So

Dear demi-winter,

I am indulging today. For 17 days. Peeling persimmon skins like sores. And cysts. Slurping the innards like ambrosia. The tag from my thumb to my wrist begged freedom, and I resolved. Skin-peeling, they say, spells anxiety. But I am indulging today, for 17 days. I flayed my fruit and ate the rinds. Guilty pleasure because I feared nothing less. And I bled and stained my snow-white skirt. Under the hem, where signage spells out “no wash,” I left a port-wine cherry blemish. Haters will say it’s a splatter. Don’t care, don’t worry about returns. Just live the lavish decadent drippings and pink pearl sprinkles. For confectionaries crumble like chalk and sheen goes inside you and out like pink shit. I also learned that if cupcakes are made with love on the mind, you may send geode pockets of flour. Don’t watch Bridgerton while you bake. The space, while filled by steam, shall never be replaced with genuine cake.

With love and nothingness,
a distracted flo/w/ur

Michelle So

Michelle So is a senior at Arcadia High School. She is the Editor-in-Chief of her school newspaper and has been published in JUST POETRY!!!, Teen Ink, and The Alias Magazine. Her writing has been recognized by PBS NewsHour, Headliners in Education, and Hollins University's Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest. In her free time, Michelle enjoys finding colorful beetles, identifying trees by bark, and examining her required reading for grammatical errors.

Headshot: John Truong

Photo Credit: Staff