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Letters to Thomas James
I
In January we slowly battered your head
against a monastery wall
until your eyes gently bled
The snow sank in wine, bruised flesh
as the Amphibians frozen in lakes
rinsed in blood of fresh scraping
Life slowly drained,
after hammering rusted nails
Then, we lifted your head high
And licked your freckles clean.
II
Underground grottos,
soft candles of
Grass, grains, and seeds
scorch the
Wrinkled heels
of many saints,
Purple veils covering their
Tresses,
Rustle in wind of prayers
For the chronical ache of breasts
And feet
Inside this blissful façade,
I cross my breast with
Sweet, juvenile remorse
as I slowly unearth the
tomb beneath the
altar
I am thinking of you
as a mouthful of
Rosary beads and stirring
Nausea
In a wakeful of sudden
Nativity
my belly swells
mouth opens slightly
as you walk out of this tomb
Pulsing sweetly
Beneath my skin
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This article has 1 comment.
And Wislawa Symborska writes wonderful poems, right??? My favourite poem of hers is The Terrorist, he's watching...
Anyway, congratulations on writing books and wishing you all the best...👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻
Born in Yangzhou, raised in Nanjing.
Qiao began to write poetry since age of 15 and completed a short collection of essays, The Art of Death, in the same year. She composed 31 love poems inspired by both Wislawa Symborska and Pablo Neruda after her romantic encounter with a poet. Over the years, she has experimented her poetic expressions through constructing visual landscapes of her imaginary planet, Venus. Inspired by Italo Calvino’s The Complete Cosmicomics, she is currently writing a cosmic chronology of her planet for future publication.
During the pandemic, Qiao was forced to leave school and used her time for a self-exile journey in Beijing. As she lived from couch to couch in her friends’ apartments, Qiao examined “grown-ups’ life” closely. The journal that she kept during her stay became her collection of short stories, Strange Pilgrim: Couch surfer. Returning to school in her senior year, Qiao recently discovered her love for punk music and had been researching the possible connection between Buddhism and Chinese punk.