Below the Surface

Artwork by Vicky Wang, staff artist

We were taught to squeeze our

eyes shut as we fall into water.

Curl, cradle, cough up again.

In dreams, she devoured whole

horizons while I skipped from

crest to crest, reeling in

fish from her teeming breaths—

how easy, to forget the way we

marble her spine with accidents,

synthesize sickness into her throat.

Billow, break, beg in bone-blue,

gone-blue, heed the calls quelled

by sequined limbs—in dreams,

I hear that we cannot boil the

neglect out of seawater, nor rinse

away regret from a basin drained.

So later, we’ll be slaked with

cups of cold salt & swim in the

cusp of a skeleton, the treasures

all gulped out in greed—

O, how she weeps: but will you

listen? Will you come &

see?

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Vicky Wang is a high school junior from Jericho, New York. She is loves photography, programming, engineering, and music. Her passion for engineering and love for designing has qualified her and her robotics team a chance to compete at the VEX Robotics state competition amongst fifty other teams, early 2020. Photography is her creative outlet and it allows her to freely express herself and capture the beauty of the world through a lens. When she is not creating, Vicky loves playing badminton, baking, and watching cute dog videos at 3am in the morning.