Eileen Chong

For M.F.   What is the use of a full moonnow we do not harvest by its light? There is no one else standing here,lifting their face to the star-studded sky. Do you see the moon’s craters, its dark side?It simply hangs there, brilliant white – * In the living room the childrenand I mime spinning on an axis. We tread an elliptical path aroundthe sun of the dying woman. Later, she gif ... (read more)

For H. Tamvakeras I was reading a poem in that upstairs sunlit room when I looked up and thought I saw you, Harry, standing beside the window across from the apartment where laundry hung outside like a fireman’s ladder snaking down the brickwork. The man had your narrow shoulders, the same frail back, your steel-grey hair. His head was covered by a baseball cap. He was miss ... (read more)

And on my travels I came across a boy holding his purple heart in his hands like a broken cup. I touched the handle – it turned into a bluebird and tottered away on unsteady feet. The boy unfolded himself into a crane and tucked his head under a wilted wing. His leg, a post from which a flag flew red, blue and white. I lowered the flapping thing onto the ground and it spread out like ... (read more)