This month, The CHS Writers’ circle selected Nico DeGuzman’s poem, “Love in the Era of Doomsday” as the poetry competition runner-up.

Nico De Guzman is an artist in both visual and written forms, and his work ranges from sketches, to poetry, to zines. Writers who inspire him include Sylvia Plath and Ocean Vuong. His other work can be found in Under the Madness Magazine, The Dribble Drabble Review, and Elan Magazine.

Love in the Era of Doomsday
 

“IMPENDING DESTRUCTION”
scrolls by in the marquee
beneath the news reporter’s hands.
 

I watch as your chapped hands pour
cups of red wine, microplastic-laden
in a faux glass facade.
 

Beyond our glass screen,
the moon seems almost visible
behind the ceaseless dirty fog.
 

Outside smog rattles inside
my chest as I cough out a toast
to our immortal youth.
 

We gulp down our drinks
as if we’re taking cough syrup.
I pull you into a dance.
 

The broken radio struggles to pull
a jazz tune from the air, still
we figure out how to swing anyway.
 

You tearfully whisper to close
my eyes, but I give you only a
broken smile and profess:
 

Darling, you look so wonderful
in the atom bomb’s scarlet glow.