Jhanvi Wong

First Place: Poetry

“Red Tastes Like Want” 
by Jhanvi Wong
11th grade, Millburn High School

—

They told me not to touch it.
The red fruit on the low branch,
ripe, soft, almost glowing.
The kind of red that makes your mouth water
before you even know why.

They said red is danger,
red is don’t,
red is for girls who forget
how to behave.

But no one warned me
how red sings.
How it hums in your chest
when you’re close to choosing something
for yourself.

So I picked it.
Bit in.
Let the juice run down my lips,
my shirt,
my name.

It didn’t taste like sin.
It tasted like summer.
Like saying what I meant
without shrinking to say it.

Red tastes like want.
Like fire that doesn’t apologize
for burning.
Like the moment you realize
the rules were never made
for you to follow.

So I eat the fruit.
Again.
And again.
And walk away with red on my tongue
and no regrets.