From the mattress on the floor / I can still see out the window / they call this time blue hour — when the sky would be indifferentiable from the earth / if it weren’t for the vague silhouettes of trees / sprawling across the landscape like bleeding ink / I am reminded that colour is light / and therefore abstract / lying down on an empty stomach / my cheek in a pool of my vomit / glows a migraine inducing neon yellow / bile attacks in two dimensions; vibrant and pungent — gagged by sour air / I think of my body / the decomposition of a soft animal / all I’m left with are your gifts/ sticky fingers / salty upper lip / this is how I know our cheekbones are fusing together /

Jasmine Liu (she/her) is a high school student from Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. You can find her poems in the Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2025 and Re-Draft 2024. She is currently trying to remember her dream from last Tuesday.