ISSUE III

we used to draft our letters like this:

              dipped in blood,           Dear

                                         Soldier, how        are you? my fingers

                            are drifting over your chains like they were

made for you. The weather        looks beautiful today. like your

              body over mine,            love-locked under smoking        sheets as

we whisper,           breath hot & mind hazy.         War is coming soon,                    remember.

              & would it be fair if i held you in a rusted bathroom &                burnt your palms? like a

                            baptizing except prettier. i will                color your bathwater with rose                     & grip

              your hand through every second. wrap              your neck with gold because         bruises are

always prettier with gold. Remember              me as winter slams & we              rotate/shatter

                                                        with you rubbing your sole             into my tombstone. Remember

                           how they call us dirty. Murder                 on our hands

               like we are killers. you look so pretty                   with iron on your hands. bone scribed

                             with my name &           yours on every ladder

               of my spine. You left me alone              in this decade, ghost hugging my tongue,

                            desperate & begging. we are meant to serve                   together,              remember?

                                                                                                   Don’t

               forget your duty, soldier. we love.                & kill. you: in my arms & we are

                                           falling/breaking

                               together.            Remember?

                                                                           Wish you all the best.

Vivian Huang is a young poet from Irvine, California. Her poetry is published or forthcoming in Eunoia Review, Polyphony Lit, National Poetry Quarterly, and elsewhere. Her work has been recognized by the Alliance of Young Artists & Writers and Princeton University, among others. She loves fangirling over movie soundtracks and is obsessively in love with blueberry scones.