Licking loneliness from a wafer cone
Spitting sprinkles onto sidewalks
I am careful not to step on cracks that will break my mother’s back.
I tiptoe between
acceptance
and
regret.
Scanning the pavement for my future¬–
following the breadcrumbs to
Success?
In the concrete I find no rose to pluck,
Only boredom that sticks like gum.
Digging for meaning in the dried-up dirt,
I paint my toenails with crud.
Beneath a peacock meowing in the tree,
I plunge down into earth.
Challenging breath until the sunsets
I travel beneath the surface.
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Yacine Ndaw is a multidisciplinary artist and children's media producer based in Brooklyn, New York. Their work expands across mediums– intersecting their Turkish-Senegalese-Muslim-American identity through writing, filmmaking, jewelry design, and performance.
Lightwood 