Mangosteens

I look for mangosteens and marbles
in a bottle. Messages in a sky held
up by swollen ankles.
Elephantine fingers
curious for crushed velvet and
flesh caught in
cobblestone cracks,
thunderous. Spidery
telephone lines swing
low. They dip
over mopeds leaning
faint.
Sweat trickles
down the collar of a rider
leaving the skin of this town
and when the clouds,
bloated with the weight of water… break,
I drink.

---

Claire Kuo is a junior at Columbia University studying creative writing. While most of her work has been concentrated in nonfiction, she has been thrown headlong into her first real exploration of poetry. Her writing obsessions include Taiwan, her family, and the multifaceted nature of water.

Bottle illustration by C.B. Auder.

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