water moon
Palo Alto, CA
2021, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
for li bai. 鏡花水月 (mirror flower, water moon.)
in downtown palo alto the moon is placed in this hypotonic solution. dirt and brine swirl
through the transparent cellophane until the moon’s turgor pressure rises. she expands, rapidly
and all at once, pushing against her skin, swelling pregnant.
is it monsoon season already? you ask.
there are a thousand different ways to say that i don’t know. i am a city-girl, smoked skin and
puffy under-eyes. my tongue has long forgotten the taste of august, my eyes what it’s like to
witness mud blossoming under our sock feet. i’ve never stood barefoot in a rice paddy, watched
them flood it and trailed a finger through the water just to see it ripple.
i say: not sure. maybe?
you kiss me in the freezer aisle at cvs and the moon pops, her light leaking out yellow-gold like
durian. when you tug me out of the store, and i am stumbling after you with my legs wobbly,
alma street has flooded. we wade through the moon’s fluid and you laugh at my wonder, spin me
around and around until i am breathless.
mama calls me a few minutes later, says: it’s raining. should i come get you?
i tongue my teeth and squint at the sky, pretending to make a map out of the wrinkles in the
plastic wrap. i try to put into words the way it feels when we hold hands. it’s like when locusts
bite at the clouds. like when i pull purple yams out of the earth, and they are warm and baked
through. like when i speak chinese and the words get caught in my throat, but i know i have time
to find them. it’s like when i walk in the house and the a/c is already on. like when the white
flesh of the lychee kisses the tops of my fingers. like when the air hangs humid in the airport,
clings to skin as if to say welcome home. in these words: i like it. i like it very much, and i’d like
to do it forever.
instead, i tell her: okay.
Reflection
Reflection
Last year, the San Francisco Baylands were under flood threat. Since my town is under sea level, many adults were quite panicked about this, and decided to start developing projects to help protect against the rising sea levels. Through "water moon," I wanted to envision what it would be like to be living in my town if it ever did flood. Everyday activities, like shopping at CVS or teenagers going on a first date, might be complicated by the rising water levels. I hope that by painting a surrealist image of such an occurrence, it may help to bring awareness to the issue of rising sea levels. After all, that is the power of poetry: to paint such a strong image that it cannot be forgotten.