The Valley

by Emily Uduwana

Soda spilled on sidewalks

dries sticky to your soul.

If you break your mother’s back here,

do the cracks fill up with cash?

Los Angeles in summer—

there’s no such thing as spring—

retrace the broken asphalt;

maybe you’ll find a way to leave.

Emily Uduwana is a poet and short fiction author with recent publications in Miracle Monocle, Rogue Agent Journal, and perhappened mag. She can be found on Twitter at @em_udu.