SAL/ON

A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures

“Constructed Caffeine” by WITS Student Jessica Phan

………………….. I like                to       drink coffee on sweet-illed mornings
yet I don’t have an appetite   f        or time.
……… Both my  ears and   ey     e     s  feel as though they
………………………………………..a       re vacant and withered
Like a stranded   ant in the hills            that
………………………………..can’t su    r        vive without
………………………………………………….its colony.
There’s times where my hands would       shiver as they run  over my eyes
and then attempt to seal the sound               around me
………………………………………but st     i      ll the   only thing I can do
is hold my breath until the monotonou       s       bitter aroma of coffee
is the only thing I can taste as I try                        to stumble my gasp.
…………………………………………..Even so, it’s
…………………………………………………………… okay.


Jessica Phan wrote this poem while a student at Evergreen High School with WITS Writer-in-Residence Arianne True. Jessica read the poem to open for our Literary Arts Series event with Louise Erdrich on November 10, 2021.

Posted in Literary Arts SeriesStudent WritingWriters in the Schools2021/22 Season