a literary playground

By: Phương Uyên Huỳnh Võ

About The Piece:

(from the Author) This poem is a wondering about hurt, what I know of it, and don’t. What I wish it could be (non-existent) and what it is (it exists). Poet 
Anastacia Renee introduced me to the form eintou, after poet Eintou Pearl Springer. The form is a pearl of wisdom, originally with 2 syllables/words first line, 4 the second, 6, 8, then 6,4,2. 

1)
I ask
bees flying close to
not burrow into me. I promise
I’m a good person, though that didn’t matter
to him. Things I’m wrong about;
summer gnats in the
air; hurt.

2)
Metal inside
my knee, it is
alien. Steel knives, the world wolves
you before you are ready. One day when
we are gone, this grief will
leave us too. So
Heart, cry.

3)
You sing
under hoa phượng trees,
golden songs wide as streets. Your
knees soar for rope raised higher than the
tallest kid. Halfway over, I remember
flying is a surrender
to gravity.

***

¹ A form learned in Anastacia Renee’s class, after poet Eintou Pearl Springer

About The Artist:

Phương Uyên Huỳnh Võ is a poet from Anaheim, California and Sài Gòn, Việt Nam. Her work has been featured or forthcoming in Crab Creek Review, Huizache, Two Hawks Quarterly, Rising Phoenix Lit, diaCritics, and others. She is an alumna of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, VONA, Roots. Wounds. Words, and Kenyon Review Workshops. In her free time, Phương likes to play piano and sing songs on repeat. She thinks she is funny. She currently resides in Long Beach, CA, land of the Tongva and Kizh people. You can find her on Instagram @jasminegreentea96.