Poem of the Month
from A Single Woman’s Bedroom
Thinking
I spend all my spare time doing it.
I give it a name: walking indoors.
I imagine a life in which I possess
All that I lack. I fix what has failed.
What never was, I build and seize.
It’s impossible to think of everything,
Yet more and more I do. Thinking
What I am afraid to say keeps fear
And fear’s twin, rage, at bay. Law
Squints out from its burrow, jams
Its quiver with arrows. It shoots
Like it thinks: never straight. My thoughts
Escape. One day, they’ll emigrate
To a kingdom far-off and heady.
My visa’s in-process, although like anyone,
I worry it’s overpoured already.
You didn’t come to live with me.
— Yi Lei
translated by Tracy K. Smith and Changtai Bi
Thought of the Month
What can you say no to this month, trusting that the support you need will find its way to you in the space that’s been created?
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