Antonia Wang (Freedom 2022)

Antonia Wang 

Broken Radar

Every bloom is a feast to the hungry bees.

They don’t mind that we haul them

to the almond fields.

Every flower gets a kiss.

Latitude is not freedom

without nectar.

Words revolt against a thought

unwinding from unknown spools,

the broken radar beats

a borrowed compass.

Who will survey the haunted forest

if not the lost,

the ones who can see the riddles

in the falling mist

and hear the clarion calls of wings

that will someday become extinct?

***

Only for a Breath

Silence shudders before the wind. 

My pores stand in attention

to the waking beat.

I took pictures of a ram

settling disputes for the drove. He is still

a sheep.

But I am ether, grass and sea—

a fractal of a mountain

in the amalgamated ridge,

a complete tomorrow

when the moment still exists.

I am dispersed and collected,

in uncompromising dawns

that fade and last as long as I live.

I am free.

***

 

Southern Home

This home creeps around me a mile a minute.

It covers my face until I morph

into the Earth Goddess (with an outstretched hand,

spewing water).

It bears roots before it chokes me

between the windows and misgivings.

I trip on the encroaching vines

and touch can feel like cuffs on breathless mornings.

It once smelled like joy, so I jellied 

racemes of blossoms. I pickled the leaves,

made soup with the oblong roots

for as long as my hands could move.

Paralysis. I can’t see the sun. The green 

in my irises has dulled and winter is hopes away.

By then, I’ll be gone. I’ll be a wisp, 

an apparition, a Southern ghost.

***

Bio: Antonia Wang is a foodie, poet, and yogi born in the Dominican Republic. She is the author of Love Bites, In the Posh Cocoon, Hindsight 2020, Retrospectiva 2020, and Palette. Her poetry has been featured in various literary magazines and anthologies. She writes in English and Spanish and lives in the United States. Connect with her on social media @tuttysan.

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Freedom 2022 :: Setu, August 2022