Bae-j

A poem written by Belinda Banh

The yeast for my homemade rye bread 

looks almost golden in my aging dorm room

I look into the reflection of the sun rays 

The puss that erupts from the zit 

above my right brow 

almost evens out 

the cracks 

in my foundation

Coffee stains 

on my olive green shirt 

looks like camo

On the vinyl ground

The sand grains 

clinging 

onto my caramels 

look tempting

I shudder my eyes close

When I was a bus- ”boy”, 

I saw the crumbs 

of a sponge cake 

on the edge 

of the cellophane table 

and the burnt cheese 

scraped off of the bagel 

and thought 

of my tile grout 

back home