We have great news to share! We have added a new member to our crew. Please meet 16-year-old Marianne Lee! She is interested in editing cultural works but has trouble writing them, so for that reason, she instead aims to write monthly poetry for our blog. Her poems will be published here on Abrasu Magazine's site, but they will also be featured on our Instagram: @abrasumagazine
"Obscured Lives"
By Marianne Lee
Under the sun-burnt, sun-defeated
Skin chewing at your rosy blood,
I see your shrinking bones
Glaring at me
Through the old tires
At the downtown barn.
"I am the rubber
Your ebony dreams toiled for."
And just like that,
You become
The words
I sleep in,
Tightly packed
Into a history book.
"My Humble Request"
By Marianne Lee
I want to stay here
And wake up with grass
Under my fingernails
Only to look at you,
Sullen and berated.
How would you react then?
Silence
[pronounced sai · luhns]
The torment in the last circle of Dante’s Inferno.
The nagging memory that gnaws at your arteries.
The fresh blood after the gunshot.
The personification of my burning aspirations
crashing down, growling at skin, then eating me.
The purgatory before the paradise.
Shadrach, Abednago, and Meshach’s reincarnation,
going against my Babylonian instincts.
The de facto opening of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit.
I’d mean this all
In the best way possible,
If you weren't here.
Marianne Lee is a 16-year-old rising junior in Busan, Korea. She is looking to major in environmental engineering but enjoys writing flash fiction in her free time. When she’s not busy hanging out at her local cafe, you can catch her walking her dog or watching K-dramas.