Smoking and kissing
are two things
I don’t take lightly

I kiss hard, hazardously
I kiss attacks, bruise, draw blood
I kiss making sure you won’t forget me

I smoke with chimney lungs
I smoke deliciously, savoring each inhale
I smoke so close to the butt my lips burn

Want your lips to burn?

Nicole Deardorff is a 20-year-old queer actor, dancer, and writer. She began writing poetry as a way to stay sane. She isn’t sure how well that has worked, but she is at least still alive. Her writing has won multiple awards from Scholastic Art and Writing Competition, the most notable of which is a National Silver Metal in 2014. In 2013 she won the First Annual Mudsock Poetry Slam, and her poetry has been featured on Twenty-One Pearls, Words(on)Pages,and Degenerates: Voices for Peace. Check out more of her work at thewingedones.tumblr.com.

Cassoday Harder is a twenty-something-year-old photographer inspired by youth, femininity, and summer. View more of her work on Flickr or visit her website.