Sophie Yu

Pixelation

After Chen Chen


To be dazzling
glitter gun, hot gun,

glue clinging to your flesh like
a dewdrop. To be burning silently

& slowly like hardwood, like soy-
wax candle, cream-colored, on my

mother’s nightstand. To be forgiving
& less angry all the time. To be

frozen time, frozen river—not frozen
blood. To be a bucketful of snakes for O

& a bed of hydrangeas for S. To be pieces of
a kaleidoscope, falling in

place with each turn. To be dream catcher
with hands of solid gold. To be no more

promises I can’t keep for S. To be
a dictionary of Chinese so I can keep

up with a single argument, so I can hold on
to understanding & not doubting

my love. To be more than a waist size
for my aunt who likes to play dressup &

send me expired makeup. To be a cartoon
animal with enlarged head & four fingers,

high on pixel gravity, fields of pixel berries,
and oh so many pixel ponds to pixel-swim in.

To be a seed to root to sprout to tree
to juicy amethyst plum ready to devour. To be

a string of orchids at a window ledge
outlooking a sea of pebble, foam, & full

moon reflection bleeding across the waters.

Sophie Yu (she/her) is a student poet at Phillips Exeter Academy and a New Hampshire Teen Poet Laureate. She is a published author of two poetry collections, as well as the co-founder of Nova Literary Magazine. She is also an alumna of the Sewanee Young Writers Conference and the Juniper Institute for Young Writers Program. Her work has been featured in Spotlong and Eunoia Reviews, and recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, both regionally and nationally. This past summer, she served as an intern for the Academy of American Poets. If you can’t find her in a warmly lit cafe, she is most likely scrapbooking in her room with jazz blasting and a hot cup of jasmine tea brewing on her nightstand.

Literary Magazine: https://www.novalit.org/