Asset Management | Karissa Ho
So I was never naive enough—
On floor 11 clouds smeared
by, chalky, loomed—I watched
pale men move through glass
walls from a block away—It was
so cold I got hungry, then sick—
Copper phlegm—A building
reflected in another, resembling
mud—Improbably, trees ruffed
out under Whole Foods and up
from the roof of a gym—People
walked without anger or deceit
or perception of my own regret—
Crusting brick towers stacked
closely—Later, offices and more
offices hid, insubstantial, thinly
and unknowing—I only wished
to sleep, to lock the computer
and never open it again—Never
counting myself so lucky as to
want to know what comes next
—It tastes of pennies, and the
empire they built, from losing
and finding and—Losing again.
About the Author:
Karissa is a writer and artist from Los Angeles. Her poems and paintings appear in JMWW, Red Ogre Review, Radar Poetry, and Sundog Lit. She studies English literature and economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and she is a very fast walker.