[LILA DUBOIS]

Quedo Blvd.

The boys in my
neighborhood
like to pick oranges
from trees in
their front yards
they throw them as
boys would
and boys do
and the oranges explode in
spectacular fashion
just the way
you’d expect
they would
and do
Glorious creamsicle pulp
flings through the air like
dynamite
or actually
maybe
like
moth wings
held up to dusk
because near dusk
makes kaleidoscopes
of pulp
so like moth wings
if moth wings
were oranges that grow on
streets without
sidewalks
with
yellow lawns
like wheat blonde hair
like my sister’s hair
and inflated plastic pools
of boys
who leap out
sopping of
hose-water cool to
throw oranges
and watch them explode

They’re sweet
7 or 8
but they could be 17
or 18
too, rattling
by with their friends
always
Pruis the color of pantyhose
that
can’t reach
85
suckling pens
pineapple
like veterans
suck cigars
laughing
always
with the reckless wreckage
of being 17
or 18
and knowing
sweet nothing
popping oranges beneath
tires
incidentally
for sopping boys
high-fiving
so awesome
wide-eyed at the future
which rattles off
again
as Priuses would
and Priuses do
always
The streets are left
plastered with ivory
rind
smashed so deep
into the
crags
the whole scene
will smell like heaven
for days

Then the sun falls
as suns
would
and
do,
incidentally,
behind the houses and the
freeways and the
lawns
till telephone wires hang
loose against a
purpling sky
always
purple
and never quite
black
or starry
its the San Fernando Valley
where
violet air and oranges
simmer into the blacktop
at the end of the day
like milk into a paper napkin
or like
stain glass
in a
melting church
boys run home with
citrus underneath their
fingernails
and
we all know its impossible
to be unhappy
falling asleep
with
citrus
smelling
fingers

[about]

Lila Dubois is an 19 year old waitress, musician, and student at the University of Pennsylvania who writes to explore the kaleidoscope of humanity in the seemingly mundane of everyday life (and also, for her own personal sanity). Her writing has been featured in various journals and recognized by the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards; her music can be found on all streaming services. She works out of Los Angeles and Philadelphia.