Daybreak

By Andrea Villarreal Yu

Sunlight breaks through the night. Where it once was
buried under his fingernails when he tried to scrape it away.
& I understand. If I were him I’d be scared of angels too.

I bear the weight of wrongs & rights. Will someone come along
with ever-listening ears so that I can craft the romantic narrative in
which I villainize him so poetically? I bear the weight of this darkness; his darkness

which is what paints the sky in daybreak. I lose myself & forget the right way home
& when your lethal claws let it be I start to doubt you ever had them.

Rocking back & forth like a madwoman, from my lips I spew lies
on the run away from him, from home.
Breaking my pretty heart like so. The angels are coming for you now.

Andrea Villarreal Yu is a sophomore at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. A writer of short stories and poetry, her work has appeared in the Daphne Review and various anthologies. She has also been recognized in multiple national writing contests. When she is not busy crafting narratives, she is a dedicated advocate for women’s reproductive rights.