Sierra Elman is a high school writer based in California. She is the former Youth Poet Laureate of Burlingame-Hillsborough and has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards among others. She is also the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Marmalade Lit. Her work has appeared in the Blue Marble Review and the Eunoia Review. When she isn’t writing, she can be found playing Gracie Abrams on the guitar or trying to get her nine-year-old dog to come when called.
Poem
Last Tuesday I said I would do anything for you
Black velvet on a Macy’s mannequin.
You touched her white neck, kissed her white lips.
Your hands between her white bones: all talcum powder
and baking soda on your fingertips. When you
weren’t looking, I folded her knees and lay her down.
Black coffin, red lacquer, trunk of my car.
I drove her to the beach. I made her a picnic on a
checkered blanket. I put her white palms on my
hips and we danced until my feet were tired
from the singe of the sand. When I
wasn’t looking, you scattered her ashes in my hair.
We split a cherry soda and watched the moon,
wore her black velvet over our white shoulders.
Copyright © 2025 by Sierra Elman. Used with permission of the author.
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