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Sideways
By
Kristine Ong Muslim
In
the alleys, the teenagers are rotting - nostrils plugged with
crystal meth. Sometimes, you want to drive stakes through their
hearts to make the defunct organs beat again.
The
stray cats prowl on top of the trash cans; in this filth, their
fur remains clean.
A
creature of the sunset darts past. Its sap trickles down to leave
a trail for you to follow, but you never talk, you never stare,
much more follow strangers.
There's
Rebecca, Ms. Kansas 1985. Now she's living with an alcoholic
inside a flat with a ceiling that leaks every time it rains. Back
in high school, you like her a lot. So you do not wish for a lot
of rain.
You
remember reading Gwendolyn Brooks in the meager light of December
until you were shaking (not because of the cold).
Guided
by your artificial light, you resist a pocketful of luck and braid
a handful of roads.
You smile at Mr. Burke
- once a shoplifter, now a chef for the newly opened French
restaurant downtown.
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KRISTINE ONG MUSLIM's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in
Adbusters, Bleeding Quill, Color Wheel, Her Circle Ezine, The Pedestal Magazine, T-Zero, Tipton Poetry Journal, Turnrow, WORDs DANCE and
Antithesis Common. She lives in the Philippines and has written more than three hundred stories and poems for genre, mainstream and literary publications in Australia, Canada, UK and USA.
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