ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Amy Zhou is an aspiring high school writer at The College Preparatory School in California. She has been recognized for her writing by The New York Times, the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, and Hollins University. An alumna of Iowa Young Writers’ Studio and the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program, she serves as the Editor-in-Chief for her school’s newspaper, The Radar, and literary publication, The Steele. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Diode Poetry Journal, Up the Staircase Quarterly, PANK Magazine, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, among others.
The Story Our Lungs Carry
Fold my palms like origami. I wasn’t made
to hold this prayer.
Here, I find birds circling in the east’s
dying breath, sky cutting its teeth
on smoke’s singing body. Gasoline
liquefying into a paler fire.
I watch bodies fall like snow
on television screens. This hour,
soundless cries copper fleeting skies
as softness stays buried under mother
tongues. Baring amber on my teeth,
I dream of salt. How I bear
the weight of another life.
I spread myself thin into embers, spread
my palms open to make them speak.
The way my lungs carry stories
of another year, but do not sing.
I watch light beg before it shatters,
the night turning raw before
it burns. It is so cold here.
I find my body sharpening
like a blade.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published quarterly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
