CAMERON CALONZO
Overture
Pick me up when you pass through town next time.
You don’t even have to ring me up beforehand, I’ll be ready anytime:
hair braided with blue ribbons woven in. Eyeliner smudged just right.
A picture of all-American idolatry.
When I hear your car pull up, I’ll race down the stairs,
plant face-first onto the ground, and cover up the bruise in three seconds flat.
I can show you around the farmer’s market, and I’ll pretend to know how to
tell the good watermelons from the bad based on sound alone.
Once the days get shorter, I imagine that’d be the time to start getting worried.
For now, though, it’s summer and I have hope—
hope and a peeled apple to share. I know you like them that way.
And even if I shaved my fingers down to the bone,
no matter how much blood I lost to the kitchen sink drain,
I’d peel all your apples for you, until the end of time, if it meant you’d stay.
I can be your catalogue girl if you’ll have me.
I’ll sit cross-legged in front of the mirror and chant
There is nothing wrong with me! There is nothing wrong with me!
until the sun comes back up and I can kiss you like it’s true.
Until there’s no longer a closet to hide in and I’m laid
etherized upon your dining table.
I’ll wash your hair when you’re punch-drunk and reckless,
and I don’t mind if you fall asleep on every single road trip we take. Really.
Call my voice grating. Call my music cheesy. Just call.
Cameron Calonzo is a queer high school student from Southern California. She is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Iris Youth Magazine. She currently works as executive editor for Cathartic Literary Magazine, writer for Asians in the Arts, editor for DIAL Magazine, and editor and project manager for the organization Youth4Arts. Her work is featured or forthcoming in Babbles Magazine, The Weight Journal, Eunoia Review, and others.