Liana Fu

moral guidance for decisions

In the margins of
Sunday service pamphlets, 

under the guise of god’s all-knowing
fluorescent lights, 

the ink bleeds
black for my 

sins. listen, it’s in the heart
beat—kindness instead
of obligation. 

once, I stood so straight-skirted,
legs-tighted and converted in line,
Mrs. Gray let me choose 

between M&M’s or Skittles,
to which I didn’t say, 

the taste of God
feeds me into neither.

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Liana Fu is a student at the University of Chicago majoring in Creative Writing and Comparative Race & Ethnic Studies. She was born and raised in the northwest suburbs of Chicago but tethers herself to Hong Kong. In 2016, she was nationally recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for her memoir/personal essay. She edits for Blacklight Magazine, a literary magazine dedicated to publishing works by people of color, and occasionally writes for South Side Weekly and The Chicago Maroon. She is currently interning at Chicago Review.