“Hoya Carnosa”
Native to Eastern Asia and Australia
Amy Chen ’15 participated in NA’s Creative Writing Workshop as a sophomore and has been an instrumental member of Prisms literary magazine. Thank you, Amy, for sharing this beautiful poem with us!
Hoya Carnosa
Each morning I awake to a new sheen. Dew beading and dripping faster, slicking past each breathing pore, moistening a long shining mask – two trails around the eyes down the neck dotting down the chest to my toes. A flower grows from my head. The weight of its smell sagging down my face, pooling its heady spice in a steaming cloud, filling every orifice it touches, attaching every root-like tendril to my senses, points releasing pulses of bitter sting. My fingers bind to my toes, tangling further downwards with each upward tug. Always seeking respite from the ache, the crack of each twisting spinal increment as I stoop uncontrollably deeper. Shedding each morning a new sheen of wax.