translation of hi how are you it’s been a while since we last talked
YOUNGSEO LEE
we were cross-legged on the twin xl,
soaked in k-cup coffee, buzzfeed quizzes
& pinterest boards & we laid out
improvised scale models of the venue on
the dorm room floor,
highlighters for neon-eager guests &
a lanyard for the aisle. drunk on mini-fridge
wine & choreography to for the longest time
culled from youtube videos, high on
dry-erase marker & the sweet perfume of
love. we watch as it hovers on the windowsill
like a baby bird & i watch as it mixes with the
skunk drifting up from the stoned kids,
the stench of stone reality that hangs
over the quad. & it rots, all the way through.
& ferments, into bitterness. see, not all
scenes from a college wedding can be protected
with the hardened pretty shell of
engagement-ring-glitter or the rose-colored-haze of
alcohol, even if glitz & blush are embedded in the
color scheme. i know what you think about love
& i think that you will fall out of it, & into
a caricature of pre-midlife crisis—
then the king & the queen went back to the green
but you can never go back there again.
& i will fall out with you & down into an
abyss of ruined romantic-cyncism, veins filled with
dried-out flowers, inner monologue of
the wedding march in a minor key; a half-
smushed fondant bride and groom buried in
the chest cavity. everything is
cliche here: borrowed tradition
& borrowed time & billy joel, no matter
how much you tried to resist, or at least
you insisted that you did.
YOUNGSEO LEE is an eighteen year old from Seoul and Arizona. A 2020 National YoungArts Finalist in Creative Nonfiction and cat lady with no cats of her own, she has work that has appeared or is forthcoming in Entropy, Emory Lullwater Review, Bitterfruit Review, and more.