"Bubble Tea" by Grace Zhang

     sweet tapioca pearls doused in syrup, 
the 
     taste of light frothy cream melting in your mouth 
graced with a ring of bitter assam tea: 
what more could you want 
     when i gave you my scope of infinity 
in a little clear bottle? 
     maybe you should read your texts a little more, 
notice all the times you left me on read. 
     or, sure, go ahead and turn your read receipts off. 
let the world know that we are no longer a power couple because you hadn’t seemed to realize when 
     your lips suddenly purse, 
a wrangled gasp burning on its way out. 
     i hand you my love in a jar and you take it, 
so desperate for forgiveness that you would 
     ignore the concave husk that is your heart, 
the countless times you snatched glances across your shoulder, hoping i wouldn’t notice your pitiful conversations, 
     the taptaptap of marble fingers writing sonnets to 
the other girl. 
     i hand you my love in a jar,
that sweet confetti milkshake bursting with 
     caramelized tapioca, 
and for one second you take it, 
     your convenient intolerance to lactose slipping your mind: fitting, isn’t it? 
that you would forget and forget and forget and then finally  forgive. 
     i handed you my love in a jar and now i take it back i take back that sweet bubble tea 
and watch 
     wordless 
as you convulse on the ground, 
     milk foaming at your throat. 
a laugh burns in my throat and i swallow it down 
     like sickeningly sweet cough drops. 
i collect my love in a jar, 
     that sweet irresistible honey, 
and leave like rhett butler 
     because truthfully, 
i couldn’t give a damn.

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Grace Zhang is a fourteen-year-old freshman in high school with a passion for writing.