17 sits
on the tongue like soft
peppermint, like almond cake
eaten from the hands.
17 rises like Artemis
in a cloudless sky
glows
like cotton balls and heart-shaped soap.
17 is not as good as the movies,
but better than expected;
loving someone
who looks a lot like you.
Irene Vazquez is a Pushcart Prize nominated writer from Houston, Texas. She is a founding editor of Zig Zag Zine. Irene was a runner up in the 2016 Glass Mountain Prose and Poetry Contest, and she received an honorable mention in the 2015 Princeton High School Poetry Contest. Her works have appeared or are forthcoming in Alexandria Quarterly, F(r)iction, and Words Dance Mag, among others.
—Art by Helen Norcott