Lara Katz (17)
Gargoyle Girl
My fingers smell of pig fat. Hot oil
stains my stony skin, and my collar
tastes of dish detergent. I look peaky,
fat-fed and nutrient-starved, a dollar
clenched between front teeth, leaky
dishwasher water staining my shoes. La vie en rose:
I am tipless, number-crunched, minimally
aged. I have a sticky face and greasy nose,
but rosy-pink eyes. Shoulders I hunch casually,
my hair I shampoo purposefully: I hope
to dry it into shreds, so that out it falls,
naturally, and I don’t have to cope
with its being sliced right off my corpse, cauls
and all. But it’s probably too late. The hairnet might
be the great crown of this gargoyle.
And still—sometimes—in the right light—
greased as though with oil
and gleaming bright in the rain—
gargoyles are beautiful, moldy
eyes shining right through the pain.
Lara Katz is the Editor-in-Chief at Polyphony Lit, a student-run international literary magazine, and the first-place winner in Princeton University's 2019 High School Poetry Prize. She will attend Princeton in the fall of 2020. Her writing appears in Alexandria Quarterly, Bookends Review, and other publications. She loves curling, Latin, and not following recipes.
Gargoyle Girl
My fingers smell of pig fat. Hot oil
stains my stony skin, and my collar
tastes of dish detergent. I look peaky,
fat-fed and nutrient-starved, a dollar
clenched between front teeth, leaky
dishwasher water staining my shoes. La vie en rose:
I am tipless, number-crunched, minimally
aged. I have a sticky face and greasy nose,
but rosy-pink eyes. Shoulders I hunch casually,
my hair I shampoo purposefully: I hope
to dry it into shreds, so that out it falls,
naturally, and I don’t have to cope
with its being sliced right off my corpse, cauls
and all. But it’s probably too late. The hairnet might
be the great crown of this gargoyle.
And still—sometimes—in the right light—
greased as though with oil
and gleaming bright in the rain—
gargoyles are beautiful, moldy
eyes shining right through the pain.
Lara Katz is the Editor-in-Chief at Polyphony Lit, a student-run international literary magazine, and the first-place winner in Princeton University's 2019 High School Poetry Prize. She will attend Princeton in the fall of 2020. Her writing appears in Alexandria Quarterly, Bookends Review, and other publications. She loves curling, Latin, and not following recipes.