Margaret Zhang Sanctum last night my brother Nathan biked / said he was borrowing / at the library I knew he wasn’t I had seen / him at school a boy’s lips brushing his earlobe I / wonder how it sounded I went biking too to escape his skin scent the bible in my parents’ / bedroom tomorrow was Sunday my brother Nathan out to see / a boy why didn’t he tell me Nathan / I tattle but not about that I biked to school it felt like a monument of ease climbed on the swing pulled up my feet to elude tanbark / swinging forward sounded like Nathan / hyperventilating into a paper bag swinging backward sounded like my church / pastor leafing through pages for a morning / prayer elude I wanted to elude Nathan / biked home Nathan was not there my mom sipping chamomile at the kitchen table where have you been where is Nathan I have been / to the library Nathan still / borrowing a book Poems by the Commended Foyle Young Poets of the Year 2015
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