Shopping Cart
    items

      ←

      September 22, 2024Ode to the New York LanternflyKirsten Shu-ying Chen

      I can’t stop admiring the dead.
      They cover my every direction
      leaving behind the spectacular
      carnage of their significant
      and insignificant lives.
      Is it when we gather
      and with whom
      that stamps us into memory?
      Is it the streets devouring
      the daily pandemonium
      and a late warmth rising
      against our indifference
      to the surrounding miracle?
      First we take flight
      then the loose ends of our lives
      fray into thinner stories
      until only the dog is sated
      only the ceaseless gaze
      of here and now
      is turned to you in prayer—
      the air filled with ideas
      you have spent your life
      escaping. The footsteps
      of any family curse.
      The learning of your own
      desire
      to annihilate
      or how it feels
      to hold a creature
      even once
      by its wings.
       

      from Poets Respond

      Kirsten Shu-ying Chen

      “It’s that time of year again. Walking around this weekend in the late summer heat with hordes of Lanternflies everywhere and various tensions in the air, I couldn’t help but see their stamped out deaths as somewhat reflective of both the very real human deaths that seem to surround and numb us daily, as well as the metaphorical deaths we negotiate internally within ourselves. Why are we humans so driven to destroy? Where does this desire come from? And what—if any—good can we do with it? Admittedly, I’ve got more questions than answers.”

      →