Eyewear is glad to revive its weekly featured poets series. This overcast Sunday in London, it is good to welcome Jennifer Wong, pictured. A London-based poet originally from Hong Kong, her poems have appeared in magazines such as Frogmore Papers, Orbis, Iota, Warwick Review, Coffeehouse Poetry, Aesthetica, Mascara, New Writer, Strong Verse, and Open Wide Magazine. Her poetry collection, Summer Cicadas, was published by Chameleon Press and she is working on her second collection. Her poem 'Myth' was long-listed for the Plough Prize. She read English at Oxford and took an MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. She sometimes collaborates with visual artists. Her second collection will be published by Salmon Poetry.
The Last Monologues
I.
This is the
black forest of my heart,
this is my
circumference.
See snow patches
and brown leaves on the grass,
snow and
orphaned leaves without a home.
Do you see what clutches the soil?
And what’s that
quivering in your bag?
The window is
left open.
Long evenings in
the winter chill.
II.
I close the door behind me and go
(I ask the door
to be quiet).
I’m not stupid
as Orpheus.
I never look
back.
It’s good to
breathe like nobody,
trample freely
in my laced boots.
I kick up as
much earth as I could.
III.
I stop by a
small stream.
I open my bag:
car keys, phone,
pens and vitamins.
I send them off.
They obey the
water and dissolve.
IV.
Nothing holds me
back.
I’m changing my
season for good:
look the
sea-gazing palm trees,
all swinging
hammocks
and paradise
birds singing my name.
poem by Jennifer Wong; published online with permission of the author
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