Tiffany Aurelia

Heartbreak as Rooftop Corner

I use the wind as a ladder, scaling waves
of asphalt with my fingertips. The city
resets — neighborhood homes shrugging

off thin layers of rain, the sun creasing into
the grooves of a Nirvana vinyl we bought
last summer. Needle-tip tracing the outline of another

life. Like us, the sky slips a little, shuts a window
to the retreat of its bed as shadows curve
secrets into the silver-slick evening. I am tired

of this separation. Gathering grime against
the shutters. & I think back
to yesterday, months ago, before: how

we snuck out of our lives, found this cove
buried between an ocean of shingles.
Bodies softening in a space where the sky

takes notice of the Earth. How emptiness
holds the biggest imprint. Above,
two birds search for each other in the dying light.

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Tiffany Aurelia is a South-East-Asian writer and student from the bustling city of Jakarta, Indonesia. She loves writing poetry to explore the intricacies of memory, heritage, time and her cultural background. She has poems published or forthcoming in Up the Staircase Quarterly, Emerson Review, ellipsis lit and others.