Aftertaste
By Jamie Lim
you did not steal my innocence
for innocence is like
expecting every chocolate bar
to taste sweet when you bite
i’ve sampled much throughout my life
enough to coax my mouth
that while some melt like buttery cream
others bear raw cacao
perhaps i willed my ignorance
convinced myself with haste
that you who bathed my tongue with sweet
lacked bitter aftertaste
Jamie Lim is currently an undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins University studying chemical and biomolecular engineering. She aspires to be a physician-scientist and bring hope to patients with chronic diseases. In her free time, she writes poetry, designs houses on The Sims 4, watches African wildlife documentaries, and dreams of bringing home a Doberman puppy one day.
