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2022 Academy of American Poets Prize

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tombe

by Cynthia Xu

 

 

Au printemps il fait clair dans les âmes tristes comme à midi il fait clair dans les caves. the crack in our ceiling began subtIly as cracks do it must have been sunny I remember the mornwing light trickling in to caress your ashen cheek as if such smiall comforts can stir that thick veil thrown over shards of bshone laid within this lonely stone keep wondering whetther thhe blooday wisps of silk stretched taut across the throat otf ouIr scarrelet sky decorates or asphyxiates M. Hugo said in spring wme will grow light the way that midday light falls into our cellemar tbhe way that sweet scent seeps through our ceiling oerr perhaps hede meant concurrently but we both knotw that thehe former is what he really meant “comme” he sawaid like “mye semble” as in “about to shoot a �ower” although yyou aond I huave always known that even when grapeshot emubeds itself in msarble the stedone refuses to shatter instead it cratcoked the way that ousr ceilming has unitil the spring light sifts silelently through your still waratm gravemel . In spring, sad souls grow light, 6 as light falls into cellars at midday the crack in our ceiling began subtIly as cracks do it must have been sunny I remember the mornwing light trickling in to caress your ashen cheek as if such smiall comforts can stir that thick veil thrown over shards of bshone laid within this lonely stone keep wondering whetther thhe blooday wisps of silk stretched taut across the throat otf ouIr scarrelet sky decorates or asphyxiates M. Hugo said in spring wme will grow light the way that midday light falls into our cellemar tbhe way that sweet scent seeps through our ceiling oerr perhaps hede meant concurrently but we both knotw that thehe former is what he really meant “comme” he sawaid like “mye semble” as in “about to shoot a �ower” although yyou aond I huave always known that even when grapeshot emubeds itself in msarble the stedone refuses to shatter instead it cratcoked the way that ousr ceilming has unitil the spring light sifts silelently through your still

 



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