Claudia Ann Seaman Award
in our gummy bear world
Vivian Huang
Irvine, California, USA
University High School
Poetry
there is a gummy bear between our teeth.
i think i fell in love, with the green apple
vacancy, the artificial cherry i drown in
pharmacies, the one that tingles my throat,
drenches my stomach until it churns,
rattles, crumbles. i think i should call
9-1-1, but my hand is on the cellphone,
white cheap cigarette drenched in your
green-apple-artificial-cherry saliva
sitting between my fingers, and it is
dripping lust, makes me a pervert so i take
my fingers off, & you kiss my lips pat my hair
with golden palms, tell me you want
to sit below the decaying willow trees
behind the children’s library, talk about
nothing, everything, dream a
little that seems like cinderella, snow
white, rapunzel, princess. i think i’m high on
green apple & artificial cherry because
it feels so good i can’t stop, i don’t want to
stop, i want
you, me under ragged bed sheets, tangle
your sweaty toes & fingers in mine, melt
lewd-ish gelatin in our fleeing room,
smoke cigs, talk, dream, last forever,
cross highways, freeways, stars, stay
still in our green apple artificial cherry world.
EDITORIAL PRAISE
“in our gummy bear world” wields the rare gift of creating desire and discomfort all at once. It is a candidly visceral depiction of young love, and yet remains sweet and alluring, pulling the reader into its aptly-dubbed “artificial” realm with fluency. In it, we have the chance to taste both the saccharine thrill of candies and the sour uncertainty of love.
Vivian Huang is a young poet from Irvine, California. Her poetry is published or forthcoming in Cathartic Literary Magazine, Eunoia Review, Paper Crane Literary Journal, and elsewhere. She is also the EIC of The Cloudscent Journal and an editor for The Lunar Journal. She loves talking about movies & anime soundtracks with others, and is obsessively in love with blueberry scones. She hopes you have a wonderful day!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR