"A Pursuit" & "Mirage" by Riley Donlon

a pursuit 
give me the underbelly 
give me caverns newly cut from ancient rock
give me fresh-fallen snow under the night
give me what exists outside these bounds 

I long for something unfathomed
​something unseen 
and untouched 
that lurks within 
that eternally expands 
something that knows 
​
give me what I long for 
I will know it when I feel it

mirage 
you wandered the hallways of my heart,
staring into mirrors, knocking over vases --
my heart is no labyrinth, but 
whenever I needed you, you were lost. 

thoughts of you grazed my unheld hands,
brushed at my unkissed lips. 
I’d never even heard your voice. 

you were echoes and footsteps and
the faraway shutting of doors 
you were everywhere and 
you were nowhere at all. 

you were a mirage, 
and we both knew. 
neither of us would admit it. 

you slipped through my fingers 
as a fine, powdery ash, 
leaving only my sighing surrender. 

my heart is no labyrinth, but 
I would never step inside — 
I have so much love and 
nowhere to put it.

---

Riley Donlon is a high school senior, poet, and literary translator.