PRIYANKA GUPTA

FALL/WINTER 2020 ISSUE #01 POET

Priyanka Gupta is a rising senior at Westwood High School in Austin, Texas. She is passionate about exploring diverse themes and issues through her writing, and frequently showcases her identity through art. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, Bow Seat Ocean Awareness, and the Texas Teen Book Festival.

POND IN GIVERNY

I like it here,
you said once. I remember that,

you dipping your pinky into the blue, feeling for fish.
That’s how it happened, right?

Palms stained orange and pink,
unspooling threads at my collarbone,

fingers shucking me out with splinter and nail,
pressing blue skin to paper flowers and

rust colored leaves. You left me strung at the shore,
cattails bursting, dew at the lips like milk, 

belly a crack in
hot stone. Do you even remember?

Or maybe the next girl makes you forget,
makes a love that doesn’t flush red

in pond water. By the end, will you
wipe your hands that easily and

lay her in the ferns,

too? Do you remember when we strolled down
there one morning, watching the ripples

and sunbeams? The lilypads were like drops
of yellow oil,

touching only at circumference
until they bumped and

shuddered away, oscillating stars.
You know, there are
Whispers

that make me think
you made that place

just for me.