Oil Pastels


Dark blacks, blues, navies

Harshly scribbled 

on blank canvas


Careful, skillful hands

doting here and there,

slowly ambling along


A few stragglers

join the palette:

pink and swampy green,

purple lilac, 

mossy brown, 

cerulean blue.


The man’s silhouette

mirrors that of a ghoul

with patchwork skin tones

like wispy sunset clouds


Slowly, gradually,

lilac bleeds into blue

green blends with brown


Those patches are sewn together

not as tight neighbors

but overlapping, criss-crossing


They mold into peachy skin

and apple-tinted lips,

framed by chestnut strands.


Little by little,

the ghoulish man becomes

a little more human.


Angel Liang is a rising junior at Sharon High School in Massachusetts. She enjoys writing poetry that speaks to her passions in mental health, feminism, and AAPI equity. In her free time, she spends time volunteering at the local Chinese school and playing video games! If you would like to submit writing for our newsmagazine or literary magazine, you can do so here.

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