BROWSE Columns
✕
Huế is not autumn in Paris.
Who cowers, entering the western gates, dressed for a king?
No cabinet’s armory fails our Forbidden City.
At thirteen, the boy-king paces unaware in his peony garden.
I have no voice in that, but regarding autumn, scrap my wedding tape.
Đai holds out a fort so long for memories cast.
Simply, I sense our fate in twelve dissimilar ways.
The peony
blossoms auspiciously
on my wedding night.
Though, who’s counting?
Grand is she
outside, shirtless,
drying herbs on a line.
Who stays
near the fort
in our red carriage, red
shirt and crown?
Which
cabinet fires
many golden arrows? Glory
to this heart
folding.
Photograph by Michael Howarth (2023)
Sophia Terazawa is the author of Anon (Deep Vellum, 2023) and Winter Phoenix (Deep Vellum, 2021), a finalist for CLMP’s 2022 Firecracker Award, along with two chapbooks I AM NOT A WAR (Essay Press, 2016) and Correspondent Medley (Factory Hollow Press, 2019), winner of the 2018 Tomaž Šalamun Prize. Her first novel is forthcoming with A Strange Object, and she currently teaches poetry at Virginia Tech as Visiting Assistant Professor. Her favorite color is purple.
