Before I Turn 23
Chalk-figures with four legs and top hats waiting on the wall behind my headboard for erasure, hieroglyphs the last lingering pieces of my childhood which were a living shrine to people I loved. Names and I luv u’s and slant signatures and you wur here, weren’t you? Which is why I’ve taken all the pictures down and done the required unfollowing and forgetting and moving on except for the black chalkboard-paint we didn’t prime with chalk so that the scribbles are more like etchings from forgone strangers and though it’s been years since that July, the calendar you drew like a promise still hides behind a poster and I hope maybe every day this summer can still be fun fun fun with all the photos in a box and the room painted over in white.
Hana Kelly lives in Atlanta and recently graduated from Georgia State University with a B.A. in English. Her work is forthcoming in Instant Noodles, The Five-Two, The Lake, and Ellie Magazine. When she is not creating speculative or surreal fiction/poetry/art, she’s consuming it. Instagram @hanamkelly