slow-burn summer
when i think of us / i see summer flirting
with your cheeks / sprinkling cracked pepper on rudolph’s flaking nose
i see hot kisses slammed against walls and dangling feet on dashboards
i see the waltz of pixie cut trims and sprinkling sand in makeshift tents
i see pink bikinis scattered on bamboo sheets and cruiser-stained teeth
i see burnt eucalyptus and ripe avocado smeared on lips
i see curved spines and band-aids on shell-pink oyster cuts
i see golden you in golden hour
and glitter beneath
fingertips
friends without benefits
envious of those who fall off people like jelly
envious of those who wake up with more than bubblegum lips stamped across bamboo sheets
envious of those who build sandcastles with shells and moats without waves swallowing them whole
envious of those who squeeze the strawberry syrup from their cheeks
envious of those who aren’t tethered to bodies like a moth to a flame just to show they exist
envious of those who are told quickly about pineapple strings squished between teeth
envious of those who don’t have morning texts ignored but are always the midnight call
envious of those who scoop out the pit from avocado shells without getting hurt
envious of those who don’t tread on eggshell floors or become crushed apple cores
envious of broken mirrors unashamed of their split state
skin regeneration
ever since you / i’m made of hard candy
jaws jammed with butterscotch toffee / i swallow
any breadcrumb i can get / from boys
that have just a lick of you / salted lemon lips
toes skimming calves / i realise i got a certain type
for 90s rom coms as fix-me-up heath ledgers
& noughties ghosts when he’s just not that into you
adding another tally to the sugary echo of us
words hanging in its static tv / i live
for the smallest affection / in some bent reality
where my skin can’t forget / won’t forget
to love you in the past tense
Madison Blissett de Weger is a third-year Creative Writing student at QUT. With a passion for delving into human perspective and challenging social norms, she mainly specialises in memoir, crime, and speculative fiction. Her poetry often has a confessional spirit and consistently experiments with imagery to explore themes of love, trauma, and female empowerment. When Madi isn’t writing, she is on her self-love journey: reading, travelling, going to the beach and national parks, listening to podcasts, and drinking copious amounts of skinny lattes. She is thrilled to be a part of Brisbane’s literary scene as an editor for QUT Literary Salon as she wishes to enter the publishing industry once she graduates. You can read her first publications in Issue 9 of Glass Magazine and The QUT Literary Salon 2020 Collection.