Second place winner of The Poetry Journal Prize 2024
There was this boy I liked
we’d sit in his car parked under the night sky,
chairs reclined, listening to Fela.
He loved to chew raw onions,
it was the most disgusting thing in the world,
but my butt stayed glued to his seat.
We’d watch the rain rattle the roof of his car,
a matching rhythm to my beating heart,
I’d grin as widely as I could
to mask the terror in my gut,
that (I knew) he would become
my first heartbreak.
