The Architect
Katherine Huang
Beyond the mountains of my bare knees, Dad
rolled out the paper landscape. His fingers,
thick as piano keys, creased the white plains
with shadows thin and straight like his pencil.
Me too! I cried at age six, clambering
between his arms. He would saddle my hand
on his while we freehanded perfectly
round treetops. Other times he would cover
my knuckles as I drew, his skin wind-dried
to snowy bricks. I stopped and frowned. Daddy,
you’re bleeding. Silly girl, he said, and licked
the red splotch on his right thumb. See? Just ink.
I watched him wash the red into a tall
river of the house, of the world he built.
Katherine Huang is a graduate student in genomics and computational biology at UPenn. Her work has appeared in print/online at various places – most recently Pangyrus, Eclectica, and West Trestle Review. When not writing or sciencing, she enjoys dancing and taking naps. You can find her on Twitter @Katabolical.