Natural Melancholia
       

recall the story     a humpback whale's altruism     her pectoral fin lifts a diver
who at the surface     filled with a sense of her sentience     tells the whale i love you too

here moths land on my abdomen     there monarch butterflies swing     around mountains
no longer in their way     memory passed down     teaches us to ride the wind

my wanting tears slick     my face     a beauty     a sadness     precisely stated
i eat the page and more and     full on Anjou pears     roses and thunder raking the sky

what makes a poet beautiful anyways     tears are a part of my family name     fireflies flit
as i choose fitting clothes for the night     remember the leaping     wings in my stomach

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Copyright © 2021 Phuong T. Vuong All rights reserved
from Black Warrior Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission