the water tower

by Wesley Wang

 

i remember us
running as apparitions,
people no longer

through tall wheat
the water tower ahead
illuminating, like a spot light

our shadows following
closely behind
until they overlap
and are lost within each other

i don’t want to remember your eyes,
the shape, the roundness, the dilation,
as if a cat staring, steady
your hair flat, windless, the wheat only swaying
when our feet drift
like sailboats to a lighthouse

i remember the end:
our shadows dancing atop the water tower
but i’ve forgotten the middle,
like a sentence without a verb,
without action, a shapeless gap
where something existed
we are two subjects floating
indefinitely

do you remember the color
and how the wheat reflected off our eyes
and together we swayed,
as if the wind had blown us
diligently, under the shadow of the water tower

 

back to University & College Poetry Prizes