Bananas | Expected Deprivation

Bananas

Random isn’t it
Who gets to live
To peel a banana
Drop the skin
On the sidewalk
Eat the flesh
The internet says
It takes two years
For the skin
To decompose
The skin I mean
Of a banana

---

Expected Deprivation

what I found
was an abrasion

my life
rubbing against

my life
burning and blistering

my tongue
it was painful

to speak
I admit

deny, deny

Noel Sikorski (she/her/hers) is a biracial Korean American. She received her MFA from NYU. Her work has been published in The American Poet; Painted Bride Quarterly; The Georgetown Review; The Bellevue Literary Review; and Action, Spectacle. She received a Work-Study Scholarship for the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.