fall out

Lauren Renee Frausto

like the mushroom cloud
that follows mankinds’ greatest foible
all the rouge neutrons
the atomic sun abomination

delicate soot piles to the smudge horizon
clouds for the manic frolic of dirty cherubs
or a confused mutant thing
that was supposed to be an insect

i am the concave ash center
the ground-down dredges
of what happened before you got here
what happens when we let heaven cinder

feather-dust stirs
with the slightest disturbance
marks every surface

you and your radiation-warped bottle of Windex

March 1, 2020

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Poetry

Lauren Renee Frausto

Lauren Frausto is a non-traditional undergraduate at The University of California, Davis, where she enjoys additional roles as a research and teaching assistant. In the English Department, Lauren is studying poetry, science fiction, and exciting intersections of the humanities and sciences. Frausto is a recent recipient of The Provost’s Undergraduate Fellowship for her research on California poets’ use of science allusions. Frausto’s spoken word performances have been featured at venues in Sacramento and Davis. Her poetry has previously been published in The Raw Art Review. She looks forward to continuing her academic and creative work in graduate school.