HURRY UP WE’RE DREAMING

by Mykki Rios

29 May 2026

freshman year / college / boston / st patrick’s day / is unseasonably warm / and you are grateful / you are already tipsy / from sipping spiked sodas / in class / while you watched lolita / you are bounding / across the gardens / sunbeams stab / blissful piano chords / across a canvas / cloudless / blue with synthesizers / while the plants plink xylophone notes / spring green / as freshly whisked matcha / with a foam of blossoms / cherry plum peach / nowhere to be found / is autumn’s melancholy cello / the grunge band drone / of overcast sky / your friends are waiting / the future is outstretched / everything trills / alive alive alive / the city is my church / it wraps me in its blinding twilight

about the author

Mykki Rios is a queer genderfluid Mexican-American writer, performer and multimedia artist. Raised in Chicago, and having lived many places across the globe, they recently returned home to the Windy City. Mykki has had works featured in issues of HAD, The Bloomin’ Onion, Tampa Review, Welter, and more. They were also a finalist in Lupercalia Press’ 2022 Chapbook Series Contest. Their poems have been nominated for the Monarch Queer Literary Awards and the Pushcart Prize.

back to all poetry