Hot Pink
The sky turns pink from climate change
outside the party. You’re on the fire escape
and listening to someone tell you about her trend
forecasting podcast. Labor organizing is back now,
she says. Immortality, too. She taps her cigarette
into an ashtray shaped like a swan. You like
the ashtray. Something shaped like something else.
All your Internet ads are for therapy apps
and plastic surgery clinics. Before and after
photos. Doctors scraping off bone. You are obsessed
with the things that disgust you. Online photos
of maggots. Larvae, abandoned houses. Like being
on the computer for the first time, searching up
all the images you can think of. Kiss; penis; car crash.
All the images you can think of: kiss, penis, car crash,
a cut of meat sitting on display, the skeleton
of a deer bleached in the sun. You search
for photos of stigmata: the inner pink of the hands,
both a wound and a miraculous change
of the body. Imagine this: the pale, clear ribbon
of a tapeworm. You want to be invisible like that
but mostly, you think of other things: pills, fat,
the NRA, foods for you to eat. Broth, nut milks,
a half an onion. Here is a story for you:
On your third birthday, you swallowed
the silica gel packet in your bottle of toddler probiotics.
Outside the emergency room window,
the sky turned pink from climate change.
Kira Mesch is a poet and writer from Portland, Oregon currently based in Oberlin, Ohio. They study creative writing at Oberlin College.
Magnify, Aratrika Ghosh
Gouache on Paper
91.4 x 60.9 cm each
“Taking inspiration from Georgia O’Keeffe’s artworks, the zoomed in subject amplifies perception. This diptych compels the viewer to take a closer look to interpret the rather mundane subject through their own perspective. This also allows for the identification of overlooked aspects of the subject, broadening the room for personal perception while still keeping intact the original form and colour of the subject.”