Sit at your biggest monitor. Resist—don’t turn it on. If the computer wakes, unplug it. If you itch, if you’re distracted, if you hold grudges, if your frog won’t jump,scratch, turn off your Wi-Fi and phone, hide your father’s portrait, and jump into the pond.This is the only way to be lost in space. Space …
*The statue of the rooster has a purpose. The flooded subway platform has a purpose. A great force gathers the poppies and assembles them into a carpet draped between the downtown buildings, shimmering like too near stars. A wild hog terrorizes the wealthy. Green fruits go nuts when we’re not around. On my phone I …
This piece by Chen Xianfa is translated from Chinese into English by Martyn Crucefix and Nancy Feng Liang Black tallow leaf. Phoenix-tree leaf. Nim-tree leaf. Yellow sumac leaf.Acacia leaf. Leaf of the beech tree. Fine rain and clumsy clock leaf.Leaf of the grasshopper’s close-to-zero vision.Leaf of paint peeling from a red pillar in an old …
This piece by Chen Xianfa is translated from Chinese into English by Martyn Crucefix and Nancy Feng Liang Since ancient times, every swallow appearsto be the same one. Following lines sketched by themselves, they then disappear in a flash.The drawn lines vanish,yet they are not wholly erased, as all we losepersists somewhere, out of sight, …
This piece by YE Hui is translated from Chinese into English by Dong LI 1 He sits before the window Motionless, leaves falling On his headBehind his back, in the mirror A girl nakedCrouches in a bald kingHer armor scatters on the floor In a squareOf twilightOutside, an acacia tree turns In an instant, into …
This piece by YE Hui is translated from Chinese into English by Dong LI As the stone pillars have sunk to the bottom of the seaThe beams of the grand hall have to grow in the ancient forest Similarly, decorative patterns wind aroundThe twines on the branchesThe remaining steps testify Geometry, compared to their spirit …
Associate Editor Kate Jayroe: Grauke’s quick, clever miCRo captures the lightning-in-a-bottle inspiration that can (sometimes) strike while inebriated as well as the oft-cloudy, mysterious aftermath. What did it mean last night? And what does it mean this morning? We’re left in a dark dazzlement as we pick up the puzzle pieces, thinking of the loggerhead …
Associate Editor Kate Jayroe: Choi’s reverberating verse memorializes the lost mail of the Titanic. While we’ve no doubt encountered haunting images, recollections, and creative interpretations of the doomed ocean liner’s maiden-and-final voyage, Choi’s heedful details and sparkling images offer a movingly unique distillation of what was written, lost. Listen to Stephanie Choi read the poem: …
Associate Editor Andy Sia: In Stella Wong’s compact poem, an array of transformations is possible. The bird of paradise seems to lift off into the blank space of the enjambment, but in fact exists in proximity to bamboo: “bamboo chairs.” Read as a verb, “chair” offers multiple, even countervailing registers: to preside over, or to …
Associate Editor Kate Jayroe: There’s a wondrous mix of magic, mystery, menace, and play swirling through Bargamian’s poem. As each line culminates toward its final vanishing act one cannot help but fall deeply enchanted by their incantatory, riddle-like charms. Escapology I am a mutant who inherited a predisposition for casual lying. My father was an …