Someday I’ll
Someday I’ll
give you a proper goodbye,
not one I say in a dream,
where I wake to wonder:
Is this entropy?
Do you see it?
The mess life leaves in the world is the most permanent thing about it.
–
Just look at the horizon —
nature’s straightest line is an entrance to infinity;
two parallel planes are ill-fated lovers,
destined to never meet.
I wonder
how much further the distance between earth and heaven is
from the ocean and the sky.
–
Don’t think of the future;
a lifetime (辈子) has been shrunk down to a blanket (被子) that barely reaches my feet
You covered it with
blue & pink peonies that bloom into butterflies,
like the very hungry caterpillar at the end of the story.
Call it what you want,
————–metamorphosis / growing up
—————————————— & older
because someday,
the person you become won’t recognize yourself now.
–
But don’t worry,
someday is just beyond the horizon you’ll never reach
and today’s sunset is just yesterday’s sunrise, in reverse
to remind you;
that a prayer is whatever you do on your knees.
Yours: devotion to service
Mine: a toilet stall confessional
————–& my girl is a reverend priest
——————–who swallowed my deepest confession.
–
Someday I’ll tell you,
————–someday — so much hope hinges on two syllables
Someday is the sound of Gabriel’s horn,
playing a fermata over a semibreve rest
Sound is lost,
with a saddleback’s wings
muscles atrophy, feathers shrink
leaving bones — hollowed out,
that whistle when wind blows through,
as silent as regret.
–
Hope: those feathered things are flying in V’s to you
Meanwhile,
I’ll lose language to the fluorescence again, & again
& I’ll let my head hang heavy
under a clear moon
————–but it’s not guilt,
just homesickness.
–
Someday,
when night falls,
I won’t say goodbye, but
晚安姥姥
Jasmine Liu
Year 13
Rangitoto College, Auckland
