Chloe Dorf
Sister sleeps with Her head on
the creeping claustrophobia of
cramped back seats
my
Brother braces His face in
clinging to cushions on
dusty blue couches
I am
I am frozen fingers
twitching muscles
trembling affection in
the top rung
My limit is our ceiling
basking in the glass
admiring the sky in
marbled eyes
Wheezing gasps
lockjaw
shapes of specters
scream for my
Compress my chest
steal my breath
cement me and squeeze me
from the boundaries of my
paralysis.
When Brother cries
and Sister dies
will I still be in
Chloe Dorf is a Senior at American University in Washington, D.C., in their last semester of Political Science and Creative Writing. They have been writing since the age of 10 and sharing their work for just as long, although this is the first formal submission to something outside of school that they have ever made. They are predominantly a fiction writer, usually focusing on comedy or character-focused works, but they have recently enjoyed working in poetry. Their poetry is drastically more abstract, dark, and fragmented, dealing with identity and internal conflict, as well as changing perceptions of the world and self.