The Boy with the Mohawk -- poetry by Sophia Wong

This poem is a contrapuntal. The two columns can be read separately as well as together from left to right.

It begins with  the boy with the mohawk

milkweed pink cheeks   & a belly full of 

home, honey-slicked joy slipping from his throat

blazing eyes like the stars

lighting  of tomorrow

the boy with the mohawk   is a silhouette—

daydreaming inside the sacred temple between his temples, 

his butterfly heart pinned to the image of God

a boy-man genuflected, lost in the voice of 

a beautiful boy & the boy who was 

his best friend, his world & his lover, who killed himself;

his rib’s cattle grid  sticking out of his body like 

disjoined wings of crystalline butterflies

pussy                        girlie  

quit dreaming faggot

His eyes, simply holes

where a bullet could pass through 

he weeps into his shattered soul, tears seep

like ink down 

filling the wells of

an endless abyss. tomorrow.

It ends with   the boy-man with a mohawk, 

cocaine lining  his ribs’ cattle grid

eyes folded     around a new dark

running a rake naked and bloody

through the forest    of his own skin.

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Sophia Wong is a high school sophomore in Los Angeles, California. She is a multi-disciplinary artist and always enjoys expressing herself, wheather through photography, poetry, or film. She has been recognized on a national and international level by Scholastic Arts and Writing, YoungArts, and Women's Founder's Network. In her free time, she enjoys going on long runs, obsessively learning about astronomy, and listening to the newest gay pop.