Shelter in Place #1: “Princeton Gothics” & “Yellow”
Shelter in Place is a new series featuring student artists’ and writers’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Congratulations to Avigail Gilad ’22 for her art submission, “Princeton Gothics,” and Jeremy Pulmano ’21 for his poem, “Yellow,” featured in our first edition!
Yellow
BY JEREMY PULMANO ’21
The way my mother’s homemade kare-kare tastes delivered to my hotel
five minutes from home.
The way my father drops off Tupperware meals quickly in the street like
a timebomb. He includes a pack of Clorox and a rosary.
To clean your room and your soul, he says.
The way I drop everything to answer a FaceTime call.
The way my friend shows me her new multi-tool on camera. I tell her that those
are for Cub Scouts to cut branches and start fires.
The way she smiles, says I don’t know, I feel
safer. With the blade.
The way I risk fresh air.
Strangers in N95s leave my side of the sidewalk, pause and inspect
the yellow in this skin.
The way we were displayed in Igorot Village.
Naked.
Then redacted:
The *** blood *********** when you *****
************ look **********************
The way blood looks darker when you draw it.
Tagalog words in this poem:
Kare-kare: a traditional Filipino dish