Helen Gu

in the mirror, i am

a pair of glass slippers, never worn.
a girl is iridescent, files down her skin

into sand, tumbles through her body faster
than the sea. in front of the looking glass,

i fissure — between closet doors and window sills,
i crack my heels in every waltz and first dance,

eat the parts of myself that i shed. tonight, she dances
with the broomstick, ball gown and all. barefoot, hair

billowing like a wedding gown. tonight, she sits
on the altar again and even Sappho would wake

to tell the moon about her in watercolor. she kneels
by the window, dreams about a prince and i want

to break myself down into dust, reshape my body
how Nüwa made humans with the river’s clay —

yellow, a crown or a dandelion before the wishes
ripen. she waltzes on the floorboards, lips grazing

the air, sketching out our mythological story
that ended before we even breathed: two princesses

can never have a happy ending. i want to tell her that we
can write a poem landing soft as fairies, light enough

to fly away like seeding thistles in the air. that the sea
is just a vessel that smooths out stories over time. when

i look in the mirror, i see a pair of shoes that only fit
her body: dancing under her rhythm, close enough to touch

skin to skin. me wrapped around her flesh, delicate
and soft, moving to the tempo of a lullaby. maybe

in another universe we’ll undulate to the sea as it smooths
glass into artifacts, until our soft lips are coated with salt

and our throats are soaked in the brine-stained air. but sirens
only sing for sailors on shore, never mermaids in the sea

and a girl and a girl will only ever be women. in the
shadow of the curtain, she moves under the light,

slowly, a silhouette, not brimming with color or
salinity. there was nothing more to this.

Helen Gu is a 16-year-old poet based in California. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Eucalyptus Lit, Eunoia Review, Scapegoat Review, and Neologism, among others. She is an alum of the Iowa Young Writers' Studio and has been recognized by the Alliance of Young Artists and Writers, Santa Clara County Youth Poet Laureate Program, Bay Area Creative Foundation, and more. She is the editor-in-chief of Winged Penny Review. When she is not writing, you can find her obsessively singing opera arias, perfecting her homemade boba drinks, or re-reading Pride and Prejudice for the hundredth time.