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Verse Jumping by Alyza Taguilaso

October 24, 2022
Reading Time: 1 Minutes

After “Everything Everywhere All At Once”

To get to the life where I’m a dragon, I consume

a cup of earth. To jump to the point where I’m an orphan

destined for fame, I plot a map of stars

using peeled white paint. To harness my strength

as a colossus in a planet on fire, I must break

two fingers from each hand. To wake up as king

of a country my parents left, I flip the skin

under my eyelids. To be a siren breathing

the deepest saltwater, I profess fealty

to a broken picture frame. To become the girl smiling

in the photograph, I swallow a fistful of cotton.

To wake up in the universe where I met you, I walk backwards

with eyes closed, into the storm.


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Poetry  / The Weekly

Taguilaso, Alyza
Alyza Taguilaso is a resident doctor training in General Surgery from the Philippines. Her poems have been shortlisted for contests like the Manchester Poetry Prize and Bridport Poetry Prize, and have been published in several publications, including The Deadlands, Canthius, Fantasy Magazine, Strange Horizons, Orbis Journal, ANMLY, and Luna Journal PH, among others.

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