'She's A Charmer': A Poem by Ellen Smith

SHE'S A CHARMER

The city that never sleeps,

I didn't think I would be so taken back by your charm

The tall girls with memorable faces you don’t take home to your mother

You made me nervous at first before your dangerous hazel eyes, your sharp smile

So nervous, and my pain remains at the end or your never-ending streets,

lifting the heavy eyes toward the dark sun

Your pale yellow light and the angry tunnels whose tops shatter upagainst the dusty sky

Skyscrapers whose muscle and bronzed rough skin challenge the cyclone in my mind

Six days on Manhattan’s unclothed sidewalks and at the end of the week the ecstasy steals the streets

Six days without you, I stand on our vintage roof

Your absence leaves my lips cold.

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Ellen Smith is a senior at Susquehanna University. She is studying Creative Writing and Journalism. She lives a sort of double life on campus through her participation on the University’s softball team as well as a dedicated student in the writing department and the radio station. She studied at the University of Cape Town during the Fall of 2018 and hopes to live or visit South Africa again in the near future. Even though Ellen promises she is so much cooler online, here are her social media handles: Instagram & Twitter: ellenn_smith.