Category: Poetry
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poem: december 25, 2022
spellbound by sunsets and Christmas, I crouched / by the window of my old bedroom, overlooked / a field spilling over with weeds, then birds,
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dearly beloved
dearly beloved I miss morning light dappled across off-white pages of out-of-print poetry. I miss waking up to the blackbird’s songand the goose’s melancholic question. I miss ambling down the dirt road remainsof a lane once tread by Mary Janes ontheir way to the one-room schoolhouse. I miss giggling with the deer when theyappear like…
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poem: untitled
In forsaking the ability to change,they diminish their capacity for hope.—Kathleen Norris, “Dakota” What must it feel liketo not be somebody’s first love? I’m sick of being angry.My therapist said thisis part of grief. I always know I’m home whenI don’t feel Asian enoughfor anyone on social media. I’m afraid to write.“You must trust the…
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Remember
Forgetfulness is simultaneously a desirable and undesirable thing that flits between conscious striving and my conscience. It’s a defense and an attack. A quick look backwards and our efforts crumble to pieces. The fortress falls. The memory room collapses. And so much clawing can’t get us out. I have wanted to forget the sound of…
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Poem: For Now
We watched the lightning show from my bedroom window, carmine and hibiscus dancing behind charcoal clouds,angelic hallelujah light. I scolded youfor being on your phone, but you were curiousabout gas excitation and electrons so,in retrospect, that was probably okay.Apparently lightning is five times hotterthan the sun, and Zeus is married to Hera,the goddess of childbirth…
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From the first page of summer’s journal
Just now a heron (a crane? a stork?) flew right over me as I stood by my window watching the dusk gather itself into evening, and I am at a loss for words to describe how it made me feel. As its form rose over the trees and turned to climb above the fields, I…
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Crux
The world came to a standstill on March 11. Everything we had hoped for, dreamed of, trusted in, crumbled in our hands and tumbled across the globe as invisible non-life broke through sandy faith and crushed our fragile reality. We sank, defeated, into ourselves and cried, clung to any last dangling lights we could find…
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things i miss
– crying in the office – laughing in the office – dancing in the office – hugs from my mother – hugs from my friends – hugs from people I didn’t get many hugs from – coming home to the apartment – reading in the apartment – singing in the apartment – the train –…
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Obedience
I called her in tears on my knees wrestling with God. I said, “God keeps asking me to give and give and give back to him. And I do. But I have nothing left. I’m empty.” She said, “Give God your nothing.”
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Abra
Lord, show me my sin: of when I have said too much and when I have not said enough. Lord, show me my darkness: not so I can wallow in shame but so I can fight for the light. Lord, teach me love: patience and kindness and trust do not envy, do not boast. Lord,…
Eliana Chow 