The World Was Already Sleeping

with a gun under its pillow

now it is in slumber
a coma
under disinfected roofs

a story told in a room with no furniture
in a cafeteria with no plates
of a musician and a soundless violin
who gave a wave or two behind the Nintendo
giving a hesitant kiss between the N95
wearing a speckless pair of shoes
having his occasional dosage of raw sunshine
– then in just a blink
where the earth spins slower than usual
he is weeping for his grandfather’s captured lung
coming back to greet a pattern in the headlines
“Virus Death Toll Jumps” “It’s ‘Inevitable’ Here”

we cursed that we lost paradise
when the fruit
was bitten by Adam

Korean poet Yvonne An was born and raised in the Philippines. She is currently a senior in International School Manila. She spends her days inventing projects to advocate for zero poverty and social justice, birthing imaginative characters and their stories, hammering her black velvet piano, and portraying our current world by communicating through a universal language, music. Her accomplishments include gold keys by her poems admitted to the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards, publications in Aerie International and WhatRoughBeast Indolent Books, investigative research papers admitted to NRCASH, ISMB conferences, publications in APJMR, IJAR, and non-profit organizations accredited by UNESCO.