TWO POEMS by JANICE LIN
IN WHICH A GULL STEALS MY 50 DOLLAR LOBSTER ROLL
THE GULL IS HUNGRY. then don’t let it hunger. ITS TONGUE IS MADE OF FLESH AND BONE. like any other creature is? NO, HUMANS DON’T HAVE BONES. but we do have bones. OUR TONGUES ARE FREE OF SIN, DESPITE OUR WICKED BONES, FOR OUR TONGUES HAVE NO BONES. but the gull has bones. YES, BUT IT HAS NO TEETH. and we have teeth, and teeth is bone. GREED WILL CONQUER OUR MOUTHS. we swallow our indulgences, but we chew first BECAUSE OUR BONES HUNGER BEFORE OUR STOMACHS DO. is it an ache, a longing? or perhaps a fear FOR OURSELVES, BUT GULLS CARRY NO SUCH DREAD. then do they know sin? PERHAPS. THEY DO HAVE BONES, but they have no teeth. YES, I WOULD NOT CALL THEM SINNERS but i would call them GREED.
San Francisco, California Through the Eyes of a Gull
The pier unfolds
and opens like an arm,
bodies flooding
its surface like waves
lapping at a shore.
A man at its base
cradles a bread bowl
in his hands, lips
mouthing a prayer
to the holiness of
chowder—
—who cares? I’m hungry. I dive,
I swoop,
I score!
Janice Lin (they/she) is a student from the San Francisco Bay Area. Their work is forthcoming or published in Polyphony Lit and Tigers Zine, among others, and they also edit for some literary magazines. In her free time, she enjoys worldbuilding, theorizing about TV shows, and trying new boba shops with her friends.