The Mirror’s Edge

Yun Wang
| poetry

 

She slept with the bear to relieve herself of the burden of purity

to travel the world alone with only a backpack.

 

Apple trees lit up with ten thousand sun-filled blossoms.

 

She winced when he pinched her and praised her legs. He suggested

that she see a doctor for her unnatural fear of the inevitable.

 

White petals blew in the wind as church bells tolled.

 

He undressed her and pushed her down. It hurt but she did not

make a sound. He was disappointed by the absence of blood.

 

White petals were trampled into mud.

 

Bears do not turn into handsome princes. He turned into a half bald man

with a leather-bound journal, in which he noted her various imperfections.

Yun Wang is the author of poetry books, The Book of Totality (Salmon Poetry Press, 2015) and The Book of Jade (Story Line Press, 2002), and poetry translation book Dreaming of Fallen Blossoms: Tune Poems of Su Dong-Po (White Pine Press 2019).

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