Passport Stamps from Narnia by Avery Chu

Passport Stamps from Narnia

I, who never fell through mirror to Wonderland, who never
sailed in tornado to Oz, who never paddled across acetate oceans.

I, who never found Narnia. I, who seek. I catalog childhood
fibs as incantations. Paper fairies shuttered my blinds last night:

I was staring at halogen bulbs, tungsten on retina, when one trembled
past. I glued my own wings from candlewax and magazine clippings.

I jumped from rooftop to trampoline, springs shuddering as I
collided. I was not floating in shipwreck debris in the Aegean.

I narrate subway commutes as Shakespearean. Mundanities heap.
Narnia is not through this doorway, nor through the turnstiles.

I wait for the express, the summons. I wait for the wardrobe.

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Avery Chu is a high school student. Her poems have appeared in Filter Coffee Zine.