by Ann Huang

Destiny Embraces Many

“The people that harm
you the most
aren’t those you alienate.
Many nodded.
Destiny is not empathetic.”

To undress the dress, unbutton a blouse–
customarily
for the beloved.

Going from one extreme to another:

lurking after a horn
learning flamenco
teaching the dog to fetch
enjoying a fleeting speck of time
imagining a future more beautiful

the body insidiously accompanies
the rhythms of page-turning.

Entangled

There are new people:
Alchemical angels,
Bright angles,
And there are specks of old stuff,
Paper and dust,
An unexpected person.
Membrane on a keypad,
Memories through an oeuvre;
Words, let them flow,
Patience when I cannot cry.
I would never be over you
Sated and lenient one!
There are secrets,
Filled nuclei,
Soaked fringes,
Strengthening feeling,
And weakening lineage.

Light in the Snow

You left behind a green dress
in your youth. It insulated
your happiness.

Your beliefs blent in with your time,
hairy, colorful, patient
from the sympathy of hard-won truths &
mauve pink flowers.

Light will draw you
near—

men longing
beyond
their trajectories
& lost jungles—

the marked cross
appeared as a vogue woman
rising to your psyche.

Morning Rose

Up the warm, autumn morning
A fat, red sun consumed the skin.
The leaves were dreamlike red,

And the ubiquitous sun swam in dawn.
Red leaves, knocking at the latch,
And when she sat in a white lace dress,
Her soft skinny body, alluring…

Surrounded by the bright windows to the streets,
Eventually she startled,
The fireflies in her mind.

Remembering, “The joy has wound up luring.”
You followed her waist;
The pear fruits nudged at the gate;

When is too much not enough, for pleasure?
When is enough too much?
To despair…

Lasting Menace

The unscrupulously shaped trees stand tall,
Bewitched houses bloom in the fields,
And cast a shadow of the gray shabby throne—
Close to the banks where the monkeys run—
Thrilling goldfish who gleam sharply,
The near-sighted stars in the milky way of life.
So lasting in my blood are all beliefs,
Ethereal beauty, Age’s mesmerizing,
All loves the eternal love inspires.
Immersed into the word’s surreality,
We live beyond the concrete jungle,
don’t we?

Destiny Embraces Many & Other Poems