My Fatherless Friend's Suppressed and Only Childhood Memory By Stephanie Luka

      RICO Lee Flickr


My Fatherless Friend's Suppressed and Only Childhood Memory

He wanted to take me to bed
but I was hiding underneath it, whispering
tear-stained lullabies to myself
and the lingering presence of the ghost
I would come to be. I watched
his feet step into the room, and noticed specifically
the moss growing from in between his toes,
the slight twinkle of evening dew seeping
into the wood I, too, was rooted a tad
too deeply in. I watched him, in the midst of winter,
shed his clothes like late autumn leaves
and saw his shadow become brittle and knifelike,
then drawn out and distorted by the sun setting

somewhere far away (and
for good).

Stephanie Luka was born in 1997 to a Dutch mother and a Congolese father. She discovered her fascination with the arts only after quitting her career as a professional gymnast and entering the University of Amsterdam at the age of sixteen. Her work emanates mostly from dreams, and has previously been featured in Allegory Ridge, International Times and Visitant Lit, among others.

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