Day Emerges, Boiling

COHORT 6

A woman carries a cloud

carries a woman. Each clump

dyed a nauseous red, the mountains

black, bristling silhouettes.

Again the chase begins:

as soon as the sun bursts out

of the ground, Kua Fu sprints

after it—smashing footprints

meters deep, crushing dozens

of dead trees. Clouds of silt

swirl in his stomach when he drinks

the Yellow River dry.

One of these nights,

after another eight-legged myth

scuttles into my dreams,

I will open my eyes

beneath an unfamiliar sky -

and lie there, waiting,

until the sky and I

must become each other.

I am much too alive

for a single body to contain,

let alone a lonely mind.

It’s no surprise we keep pointing

to a distant slice of sky:

naming & giving stars

that were never ours

to call mine.

Writing: Kaitlyn Wang

Art: Kayleigh Schweiker

Music: Arina Oberoi