Crane fly/mosquito. Luck/crow. China shop/bull.
Double texting/bloodletting. Heart on your sleeve/
missing your target. Over and over again/lunar eclipse.
Drawing The Fool card in a tarot spread/
reading the ending of a book before starting it.
Swiping right on eye-candy material whose bio
says ‘here for a good time, not a long time’/
realizing you’ve used up seven lives out of nine.
Telling a first date about your trauma/soulmates.
Sending nudes over Snapchat/heart palpitations.
Calculated underwear choices before leaving the house/
celibacy. Tiny details/apathy. Short skirts/running away.
Making out with a friend, drunk/clean slate.
Going to parties where you don’t know anybody
so you stand in the corner and hope the love of
your life comes up and talks to you out of the blue/
maintaining a healthy self-esteem. Scraping your knees/
getting ready for prom. White knuckles/tender kisses.
Semi-circles/dying on the same date you were born.
Lion/fear. Breathing/graveyard. Flower/barracuda.
Phoebe Nerem (she/they) is a visual artist and writer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is studying Art, Media, and Design at DePaul University in Chicago. They have been writing and creating artwork ever since they can remember and explores themes of romance, spirituality, and how their personal experiences reflect the world as a whole. They have been published in the Orange Couch Literary Magazine, Crook and Folly, and Emotional Alchemy.