"how tulips love in winter"

by Emma Taylor

I'm snug between your arms,

like a tulip before March.

Its petals lean in,

sheltered

from the February frost.

We wrap our dreams

with pollen stained fingers

and you press them between us

until the sun blooms again,

and we grow

in the glow

of its company.

Emma Taylor is a masters student in Literature and Composition at San Francisco State University. They graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with an undergraduate degree in English and worked as an editor at the school's literary arts magazine, The Catalyst. Emma is a pasta fanatic, lover of all cats, and a huge Talking Heads fan. Their work has previously been published in The Catalyst, Um... Magazine, Rattle Young Poets Anthology, and KCSB's 2021 annual zine.