Poem-a-Day

^{Video still by Hồng-Ân Trương
00:04:48:08 (2017)}

Everyone turned when we asked who had arrived
first to paradise. We walked side by side,
as centuries of soldiers did. There was bloodshed

and still the sun rose and we called every beginning
paradise. We uttered  joy into our hands, greedy
to hear how it lasted. I sipped from my cup

and handed it to the others. We dreamt of flying,
built stealth wings, feet hovered above ground
before we thudded to earth, knees so accustomed

to bending. The sky grew into a mouth, when
the opening was masked, we all breathed, sensing
it would go on. The world kept reliving the last years:

a great inhale, then a burden blossoming,
which haunted my own path, footsteps at the brink
of dissolving. I hovered among leaves,

along the horizon, until I met myself halfway.
At the edge of the river, I summon the future,
hold fast to the wind. I’m disappearing steadily.