top of page

"Stoned at the Nail Salon" • Lorde (by Roberto Guzmán-Hernández)


the wishbone is still there,

at the corner of my window

rampart against the dust

I had hoped the sun would make it brittle

and it would crumble away on its own

somehow, it remains there unyielding

the idea of another possibility

has weathered the seasons

and the handful of snowfalls

that remain unexpected in the yielding spring

I figured that it had tensed a little

having waited long enough

like I have, for a new life

still stuck on its previous employment,

yellowing with the crevices of bookshelves

chair creaking from not being used a long while

the backroad outside its window has yet

to erase some tire marks

from the cars that stopped driving through


I figured I’d give it another chance

renewed purpose on the slim chance

it forgets in which hand I—

keep expecting to break.



Roberto Guzmán-Hernández is a writer and scientist from Puerto Rico currently based in Philadelphia. He is pursuing a PhD in Biomedical Sciences and trying to catch up on the rest of the world at unreasonable hours. His poetry and other writings have appeared in online publications Demoliendo Hoteles and Cruce, as well as physical anthologies. He also writes for the multidisciplinary cultural collective Archivos del Caribe and coordinates the online blog tierras por imaginarse (but hasn't updated it in a long while).

Comments


bottom of page