By Raya Finkle
I don't think you realize
how good we have it here.
Once you leave
there are stricter laws and bigger cities,
blood vessel networks, angiogenesis,
ways to get lost, and roaring tides of sound.
Electrical currency spread across the land like migration
like white flight,
like gentrification.
You want to delve into the city? You will be eliminated and eaten alive
by cracked mouths and sore tongues.
Sores and
crack and
all the ways to count bitter guitar strings
when they are plucked one by one or strummed together.
When we cut out the cancer, we cauterized the margins
so it doesnt grow back.
When you leave this place, we scrub out your existence’s remains
so you can never come back.
Raya (legally Rachel) Finkle is a 21 year old nonbinary author currently living in Oregon. They love writing and use poetry as a form of healing.
Hot Pot Magazine 