RIPE BY SUNRISE
august kallio
Eyelids benumbed,
Carved into a deep blue
By these still nightfalls
​
My insides spill into the eve,
Reminding me how I stay the same;
One with the dusk
​
Mourning year after another
Not able to lay my fingertips upon
The gushing daybreak
​
The sun is swollen raw,
Its plump flesh ablaze
Tender upon my ravenous gaze.
The flare is honey-sweet on my skin In what grove do you hide, Sweetly sprouting spring
RUSHING RIVER STYX
Standing by a wine-faced, cavernous sea,
Almighty in its tumbling greatness,
It knows no wrath when it opens its abysmal mouth.
​
The quivering suspense of impending doom Silently subdues in droplets of crimson.
On the edge of the universe,
Wine is Stygian in the luster of Selena.
​
The subtle hue of stars pierces the night-sky
The moon shines, swollen and pallid like a pearl.
I press my palms onto the skin of sleek rocks,
Feeling the warmth of life oozing from within.
This immense splendor of the world
Leaves me bursting with its rigid brutality;
Burgeoning with a fondness for mild mornings, With contempt for life’s merciless rush.
​
Quietude sweeps by, leaving my
Fingertips with a blazing tingle,
And my insides with a flowering sigh.
My name is August Kallio. I'm an upper secondary school student studying art in Helsinki, Finland. I'm turning seventeen in September of this year. I take a keen interest in history, philosophy, the arts, and languages. I'm especially fascinated by ancient mythologies, languages, and cultures (such as Greek, Rome, Nordic, and Slavic). I'm an avid reader and writer of both poetry and prose. My favorite poets include Virginia Woolf, Federico García Lorca, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, James Baldwin, Sappho of Lesbos, and Eeva Kilpi. I'm mostly inspired by nature - the infinite beauty of all things living and dead. I explore these themes in my poetry.