Just Desserts
by Tyler Morello
Longing for the times when I longed for the times.
Nostalgia folding in on itself
like a bittersweet layer cake,
a phyllo dough philosophy.
I can only look back with glazed eyes.
Such sweet times they must have been,
for I remember loving them!
Just barely, as though they’ve been
frosted and piped over.
Taste buds have lost the memory of the flavor.
The drought from off my tongue expands
and leaves my mind deserted.
Such a time lies baked into my mind
when I would gorge myself on life
with the sugar rush fervor of kids on candy,
and inevitably I’d make myself sick of it.
If nostalgia is a treacherous treat,
then I suppose this sweet tooth is terminal.
Dental cavities and mental gravity
curse me with the room for one more course,
my “just desserts.”
Tyler Morello is a poet and a junior in the English Education program at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. As a future teacher, Morello aims to inspire a love of lyricism and creativity in his students. Morello’s poems often center around social belonging, complex self-image, and the split between the idealized life and the actual. With a manuscript finished, Morello has his sights set on publishing a debut poetry collection titled Kid Orchid & The Everlasting Afterparty.