Tame (from ‘Natural History of the Florids, 19
They Won’t Stop, They Believe in Red
Previously published in Issue 52 (March 2020) of《聲韻詩刊》Voice and Verse Poetry Magazine
The Metamorphosis
Then, the silt that clogged
the lungs became the silt
that wouldn’t drain
from the lungs. Became
each one of us coughing
up granules, as if we were all linked
by an invisible tributary.
First, we refused to hear that
the sand would not dislodge
from its tube, that the blood
samples kept returning
positive. Then, the silt
that wouldn’t drain
from the lungs became
the silt that ate
the lungs. Became
the river bend
where it wanted to bend.
Eventually, we understood.
That night, I hear
myself pull out
like a nymph
from underwater
and the traffic
of mayflies crest in public.
They do not believe in distance
but in time. And given one
entire day to live—
one entire life—
I felt ready for the day,
and its cleared
thorax,
took in one
clear, entire breath.
Shawn Hoo is a writer and editor from Singapore. His forthcoming debut chapbook, Of the Florids, won the 2021 Diode Editions Chapbook Prize. His poems can be found in New Delta Review, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Queer Southeast Asia, Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, OF ZOOS and elsewhere. His translation of Lao She appears in the Journal of Practice, Research and Tangential Activities (PR&TA). He is Assistant Editor at Asymptote, where he curates the Translation Tuesdays showcase. Shawn graduated from Yale-NUS College in Literature, and is currently based in Shanghai. Twitter: @hycshawn & shawnhoo.wordpress.com