The Zingara Project

Tag: Harper’s Bazaar

  • Insomniac by Danielle Wong

    They called us destructive—
    tiny, wild animals
    caught up in cheap candlelight and
    high on back-alley weed
    or inky Pinot.

    Soured sweet memories of
    glimmering nights out and
    stolen weekends spent
    begging for the keys to
    your parents’ Chevy.

    The rare times they agreed
    were the best days—
    the only days
    worth all that
    trouble.

    We’d drive (and fight) and
    drive until we couldn’t even
    find our way back to that
    stuffy garage in your
    unnamed city.

     I swear you made
    my heart quiver
    when you sang
    slowly—
    the soft rhythm of your
    voice after a cherry-lipped kiss.

    Sure, there was that time
    when I broke your laugh
    and you cracked
    my heart into splintered shards…

    It just always seemed so
    pure—that addicting war we waged.
    The honesty of it, the
    unfeigned tenderness of it.

    The ineffable
    brilliance
    of you and me.

    —

    Danielle Wong is an emerging author living in San Francisco. Her debut novel, Swearing Off Stars, was published in October. Her work has also appeared on several websites, including Harper’s Bazaar, The Huffington Post, and USA Today. Beyond writing and reading, Danielle loves traveling, running, and watching old movies.

  • Mermaid Suicide by Danielle Wong

    My skin ripens—
    a nutty hazel canopy of flesh.
    Cocoa dust and tawny
    muscle roasting, hot
    fire beneath the relentless

    Sun. My private vessel,
    suffused with color and
    plagued by a vain
    saturation, but draped
    in Vogue and saintly couture.

    The corrosion has
    already begun—
    hot blood coursing
    through precious skin and
    brackish waves claiming me
    as their own.

    To drown like this,
    I think, would be quite
    convenient.
    To wither away,
    via sun and
    decay. Ugly moths and

    fireflies are the only
    inhabitants of the corroded
    corpse where I once dwelled.

    Has there ever been
    such a simple decline—
    an ending more languid than this?

    —

    Danielle Wong is an emerging author living in San Francisco. Her debut novel, Swearing Off Stars, was published in October. Her work has also appeared on several websites, including Harper’s Bazaar, The Huffington Post, and USA Today. Beyond writing and reading, Danielle loves traveling, running, and watching old movies.