Lilacs lounge on discarded cardboard  
boxes in the courtyard off Cheapside,  

an unlikely candidate for purchase beside 
rows of careful curation, but the air is crisp 

on the back of my throat and the metallic  
city grates shine from the polish of every-  

day rain scrubbed over with shined shoes, 
and the lilacs remind me of my best friends’  

laughter, so I buy them for a few pounds more 
than someone else might.  

Chloe Bausano is a New York City poet with a degree in English Literature from Cornell University. Her work has previously been featured in multiple issues of Beyond Words Literary Magazine and Cathexis Northwest Press, as well as in The Dillydoun Review, TDR Daily, Wild Roof Journal, and others. She highly recommends people shop at their local, independent bookstores!