after noon

Victoria Siu

At 13, I was feather, scales
and crashed down a
rocky bicycle path
no control
and emotions like
gravel embedded into
skin, shed and slammed
into dark closets
in old bedrooms
hide and go seek
no one can
find me
?

I was 13
dropped a
scalding shower
head, oops
I said to
the screaming
tiles
and laughed at
my hot pink
self

Before 13,
aunt called me
down from the balcony
with green, peeling plaster
and an unrequited tabby cat
downstairs
the rickety stairs that
wound down
to cement
for a
bicycle ride.

Bio
Victoria Siu is a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Biological Basis of Behavior and minoring in Creative Writing. As a Lab Assistant in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Siu hopes to interweave her passion in research with her passion for writing. She is VP of Design and Layout for Synapse, Penn’s undergraduate medical journal. Siu has also organized and taught a creative writing workshop at Nathan Adams Elementary in Dallas, TX. Her writing has been recognized by Creative Communications as a semifinalist in their summer edition. Siu is an avid fan of Hayao Miyazaki and loves listening to Michael Jackson.