Warm butter sizzles in the pan near the window popping and sparking as the sun streams in coating the kitchen in a warm, honey glow.
I feel hot and sticky, like a stranger in my own skin, stretching and picking at it as if to make more room.
I look out at the newborn calves, beyond the screen door and the porch, playing with their mother. They know not of heartbreak yet, but they will when their mother is taken out back where their gaze won’t reach.
They know not of heartbreak, of divorce, fistfights and black eyes, two packs of Marlboro Reds every day, and waking up alone on the hottest day of the summer.
As the smoke fills the room, I close my eyes, imagining myself out in that green, a calf with a mother, who knows not of heartbreak.
Isabella Cely, often referred to by her nickname Izzy, has always enjoyed writing, but is beginning to explore other types of media outside of prose, like poetry. She enjoys watching foreign films and reading in her free time and plans to attend University of Miami in the fall. “The Hottest Day of the Summer” earned first place in the free verse category in this year’s PPCHS Literary Fair.
the atala is designed, curated, & edited by the Pines Charter Chapter of the National English Honor Society. It showcases original student poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, literary criticism, and art. Like its namesake — the small, bright butterfly that grew from near extinction to rising numbers in our part of the world — this little literary journal aims to grow our love of writing and expand our community’s appreciation for the literary arts.
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