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  • Writer's pictureMarías at Sampaguitas

Poetry by Noreen Ocampo

Circa 2017


time in my throat,

melting like the backwash of july


you swallow ships on the harbor

with your midday meal,

and the horizon bleeds into july,

in my throat


time on the shoulder,

a hissing paperweight


I scrape my knuckles on your door

a fifth time, but you are swimming

in the backwash of july,

holding crystal prisms to the sun


time between my lips,

drinking seconds like sweet wine


skulls crack open on the curb;

I dodge my own footsteps on

the sidewalk curling, curling

from the life caught in the prisms


time on the heart,

a thorny omniscient eye


kiss the cracks splitting the sidewalks

and watch the footsteps curling,

your own footsteps sauntering away

and leaving you to time





Noreen Ocampo (she/her) is a Filipina American writer double-majoring in English and Film Studies at Emory University. She is also currently a book reviewer for COUNTERCLOCK, a very amateur singer-songwriter, and an Animal Crossing enthusiast. In the future, Noreen aims to fulfill a role in the intersection between storytelling and education.

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