Drive around. We slide down the cold black leather seats of the cab.
You pull my face closer, I taste the sweet cognac on your lips.
Cologne and smoke linger on your collar: paralyzing me.
Hand travelling down my spine, the other presses on my hip.
My red nails grip your pure white shirt, corrupting its silhouette.
We pass St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the old stone walls shriek harlot!
Not in my new religion, I say, as I bend down to pray.
Valerie Murphy is currently a junior majoring in English. Her goal is to attend law school once she graduates in 2019. She believes that society enjoys being told how to think and act because it gives us a feeling of a structure of predictability. She notes: “I’ve always been attracted to literature because it does the opposite. Literary works raise questions and pose conflicts, but they don’t necessarily answer or solve them. These untidy conclusions are handed to us, the readers, and we can either bury them away in an attempt to avoid a truth that is not ours, or we can embrace the challenge of thinking beyond our stereotypes, our hate, our ‘facts.’ I choose to accept the challenge.”