bescherelle

Emily Lu

Originally published in Sine Theta Magazine #19 “HIGH NOON 午”

to be to swell to reside

Present


I am
you are


I intend
you attend


I move-in
you situate


Past


they knew


they fulfilled


they lived


Future


no one will
remember


we will be terrified

I will translate

Conditional


in some cases, to
refuse metaphor is
nothing lesser


if a cavity swells,
who is poorer, who
dies


with precise enough
instruments,
uprooting plantago is
easy


Modified by


barely

slowly

transiently

Used by


poets; estuaries;
shorelines; teenage
Hamlet


inflammatory
cytokines; pop
chorus; tide in your
hometown


things that run 24/7

EMILY LU is a poet and resident physician. Her first chapbook Night Leaves Nothing New (Baseline Press 2019) was shortlisted for the bpNichol chapbook award.