At the back of the chapel, standing

Jessica Chan

my forehead damp while
the priest presses on: terrible
teens and their treacherous thoughts
and the hymn books bristle
in the weak breeze

can the coughing man
swallow up my thoughts
or can god hear me thinking
about you the way you sing
underneath me your sweat
beading on your forehead like pearls

like the pearls on the fat
neck of the woman with a paper fan
your tartan skirt dancing like an
escaped candy wrapper your
dark arms a classroom away from mine

i forget god sometimes and
imagine you and i bobbing
down this carpeted length
some man-made words between us
our names truer than any prayer
this is how babel falls

it’s a tender thought
rather it gets crushed before
it blooms like a too-braved flower
in the crack of the chapel step
scared of death by the feet of
another man

---

Jessica Chan (b. 1997) is a writer of poems and short stories. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, Prismatica Magazine and others. She is a recipient of a Hong Kong Top Story Award in 2012 and 2014 and has been recognised in the Tower Poetry competition. She is currently studying a MSt in Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge. Born and raised in Hong Kong, she divides her time between Hong Kong and London. Find her on Twitter: @awildjesswrites.

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