Translated from the Chinese by Fiona Sze-Lorrain   At high summer Lake Huai runs dry a few days, the bed revealed Where are the fish? I stretch my hand…

  It was hard to keep up— 6th Street, Beverly to University. Wet snow and wind stung my face, sidewalk too narrow, no shoulder— cars would’ve hit me if I’d…

              —Smith and Bybee Wetlands, Portland Oregon   November   and the brightest thing’s my neon blue slicker     I wish I knew if the pulsing in the soggy…

  Tell me again the story of the farmer who finds a golden axe in the river and must enter tribunal with a silver dragon.   Or the man whose…

  They said she hurt them and brought them the book & then they fell into fits. When Mary’s hands are clincht together they point, cry out—Look! Mercy Lewis’ hands…

                  ties upon ties upon ties upon go somewhere                           …

                    When lifted,   it surrenders                   like a whirling dervish    …

  What are we supposed to do tonight— fancy,       wondering.     I wanted to see the kind of     crazy      we celebrate.   For the time we’re here     locked up like pretty         …

  It is time to disclose the truth. How they descended on my desk and typed a letter that made very little sense, a logic that matched their size and…

  almost green / not quite purple / pissed-off grey   looks ripe / remember   this early a.m. / the billiard games with a few Millenials   / voiced…

  oh no! / not this questioning   acquaintance again / why unwed / why no children /   in front of hers you accuse   her of being a…

  Today, the sky was completely ordinary. Just a few white clouds dispersed at random. Then,  in between, nothing but the dull blue of late afternoon. And I wanted to…