Written by Regan Chern in response to a digital artwork by Charlie Nieuwenhuyzen
Your parted lips, wet eyes
In bed, the sprawl of your hair.
The acid rain that came after.
Corrugated steel roof.
Blessed to be there.
Gave you my jeans,
Sold them to a man for
A month’s wages.
You are the shrine I prayed to.
I lost my father’s watch to the mossy forest floor.
In my car, you sit
On your cold hands.
You still bite the inside of your cheek?
Miss our drives?
Maryland rubber smoking those dirt paths.
I fall,
In line.
Push away the red hot, like the rash
On your arse,
After our elm tree dalliance.
Though I can’t pronounce your name,
Remember me as I do:
That Ella Fitzgerald song.
Me there, from dawn into dusk into dark.
The rigidity of my internal clock.
But if you ever called,
I’d find you.
Artist Bio:
Hi! I’m Charlie (he/him), a 22-year-old trans artist living on Kabi Kabi land (The Sunshine Coast). I’m in my final year of my BFA majoring in Visual Arts, and I’m super excited to be a part of the ScratchThat team for early 2026! If I’m not making something for my studio class, find me absorbed in the pages of a book or listening to the same three artists on my refurbished iPod classic.