toothpick.

By Aster Xoi Blex (@xoiverse_)

i have pieces of you

stuck between my jerry-built, crooked teeth.

i haven't brushed them

since the last time we talked.

i'm afraid

nothing of that fleeting moment will last,

and it falls onto me to save it.

there's toothpicks on the counter.

not for me.

i see the answer,

some sort of revelation, a realization

in the form of symbolism and metaphors.

too scared to call them mine.

it can't be.

i'm shaped by my father's cowardice

and mother's guilt ᅳ

i'm built to be pertinacious.

so i hold onto your words,

pronunciation and emphasis,

like a deer on a highway

soaking up the headlight.

and it hurts,

you know it too.

aster xoi blex (they/she), a 16-year-old multimedia artist, inspires from the universal feelings of yearning, heartache and familial issues to transform their own 'garbage feelings' into something their readers can relate to. they uses lowercase letters as an attempt to standout and is currently writing their debut book of poems.