Share the Bottle with Your Brother by Ashley Lohmann
My black nail polish is chipping
Away at my anxiety—I feel like a badass
It’s that tiny bottle I’m worshipping
Until it’s on my fingertips you’re slipping
Judgement, so I dig until my skin and nails won’t contrast and
My black nail polish is chipping
I’ll tell you why the stench of adolescence is overpowering:
They’re ditching shooters and humanity in the grass
It’s that tiny bottle they’re worshipping.
There are people in my neighborhood dying
And they choose my fingertips to harass?
My black nail polish is chipping.
Pills sitting nicely on the counter, and I hear them tempting
The face staring back at me in the glass
Though it’s not that tiny bottle I’m worshipping
And I feel like a man when I’m painting,
Not going to hide it in class or rub it off for mass,
My black nail polish is chipping
So, it’s that tiny bottle I’m worshipping.

Ashley Lohmann
NAU Sophomore Ashley Lohmann is from Mililani, Hawaii. She is majoring in English and minoring in philosophy. Lohmann writes for the Lumberjack Newspaper and is President of NAU’s Roller club and enjoys roller skating in her free time. After she graduates in 2021, she intends to pursue a master’s degree in English.