XVIII. The Moon

mare desiderii
by Winter A. Chen

the card starts with a poem waxing like a
mask of water shimmering with branches
bending into branes into bifurcation of dream
& lucidity. my body is a haze screaming
fear, a story weeping in the wound of night.

this card, a circle of mushrooms
in new bloom, a vein of glass trickling
down cheek. am i the teller or am i the
tale? what is mirror but dog-wolf-crayfish?

what is fullness but a phase of the moon?
what is howling but quenching? symphony
without solidarity? this poem seeks the threads
the weave the wander the yonder the catcher
the chaser of suits of slivers of surreal
of towers of the unswept terrain of trauma
of the unsaid power of premonition this is
how it reads how it listens to those asleep.

this poem is how we cleanse scars into cards
how we diffuse the body into every shuffle
how we write how we spread the self in words
how we orbit the decks against us.

Winter A. Chen (she/her) is a transgender Chinese poet, performer and artist from Singapore. She holds a MA in Poetic Practice from Royal Holloway, University of London. She was a 2022 Lambda Literary Poetry Fellow. Her works have appeared in Kopi Break Poetry, just femme and dandy, SAND, and Strange Horizons, amongst others.