Bitter Delights

Alayna Chen

It’s the scent

Of burnt caramel sauce

That makes me want to

cry

The lightly toasted golden warmth

Atop creamy, soft crème brûlée

That whispers

Exhausted dreams and

Displaced destinies

The sweet, bitter

Acrid

Taste of brown sugar boba

On hot summer nights

In a crowded, too-cool shop on the corner

Of an abandoned complex

That breathes anger

Into my bones

It’s the moments between tears

When i catch a faint aroma 

Of

Broken sweetness that

Cuts me, tears deep,

Remind myself of

Destroyed memories and

Forgotten pieces of beauty I’ve lost

To Time and careless mind