TRAGIC Poem: Equinox Lily, by Min Liu

You don’t show up every summer
Even when the heat does

There were islands
Stunning shores, dry, awkward
Rumored about, never visited

We planted flowers there
The dead ones
Equinox lily
Fed them tears and cheap vodka
If you ever caressed them, softly
Why go quiet now, deadly?

The bees came for what you loved
Stripped the petals clean
They work fast for sweets
Smelling like someone’s first sin.
Who was I to reach for it?
Who were you to let me?

We were somewhere—
on the road today,
at sea yesterday,
deep in the heart tomorrow
And weather forecast?
Not safe for travel

Out by my door—
A thousand arrows
They’ve been waiting
Just gotta twist the handle
Lean slightly
Toward the direction
You once disappeared
And that’s it—
Pierced

String’s been pulled for years
It never really misses