THINGS YOU SAID IN THE SEASONAL CYCLE WHEN WE WERE BOTH IN LOVE
important considerations: should i cry?
it feels like forever is grey in my memory
as if it could be nothing else.
i was a dreamer
before fate said no.
imagine killing the thief of time --
if you’re only ruthless you can’t recognize
that she brought justice in her own way
afterwards. can you imagine trying
to be happy
then the cold seeps in
and that grey is everywhere.
but i'm never gonna be able to say it
enough: memories
are only correct or incorrect
as we believe them to be.
i will play the swan, isolated
and mysterious. let’s hope
i don’t end up in tears.
it feels like forever is grey in my memory
as if it could be nothing else.
i was a dreamer
before fate said no.
imagine killing the thief of time --
if you’re only ruthless you can’t recognize
that she brought justice in her own way
afterwards. can you imagine trying
to be happy
then the cold seeps in
and that grey is everywhere.
but i'm never gonna be able to say it
enough: memories
are only correct or incorrect
as we believe them to be.
i will play the swan, isolated
and mysterious. let’s hope
i don’t end up in tears.
This is a found poem.
Source: Phrases taken from a conversation between the poet and a friend.
Previously published in Young Poets Network.
Quinn Lui is a Chinese-Canadian student whose work has appeared in Occulum, Synaesthesia Magazine, Half Mystic, and elsewhere. They are the author of the micro-chapbook teething season for new skin (L’Éphémère Review, 2018). You can find them @flowercryptid on Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram, or wherever the moon is brightest.