To night I do not question its warm reticence against a flint or its privation a river without unfoldings dark and cool, without scoopings of the moon a copious body coming down like an empire on which I fold a paper boat carry it over the coppery lines of the black earth and believe in a certain narrative by a certain other for whom I keep the tributary of language: digressive, small-scale, defiant as a fish against the keel splashing with an armor worn old
Shiyang Su is a Chinese poet. These poems are excerpts from her in-progress collection concerning the struggle, agony, and loss in recent years, intensified by COVID and frequent social and political upheavals. Her other poems can be found or are forthcoming in San Pedro River Review, Blue Marble Review, Unbroken, Rattle, Passages North, and others. She was nominated for Best New Poets.
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This poem is gorgeous. The title opens into a waterway so rich and lovely.