I wipe the mirror
when I’m done.
There is a civil war
happening on my face.
I take my fingernails
and decapitate
a row of whiteheads
lining my cheek.
Pus-filled fireworks
tear the sky when
I walk my nails
to my nose and
exhume the bodies.
A geyser of
off-white limbs
spit from my
oil-slicked
gravesite.
I confuse
my smile
for a cemetery.
The freckles
of blood
dry up the way
roses for a forgotten
grandmother do.
Ten pus-filled
elephants-in-the-room
pulse on my face,
how are you
supposed to look
elsewhere?
Author: Namkyu Oh
Namkyu Oh is a Korean American poet from New Jersey. He recently graduated from Princeton University where he studied politics and poetry. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Gravel Magazine, Kweli Journal, Midway Journal and others. He currently stays emotional in New York City.
Source: http://www.heartjournalonline.com/namkyu/2016/9/25/two-poems-by-namkyu-oh?rq=namk