a portrait: i learn how to forgive a bird
i saw heaven three years ago almost / was it light? or the opposite of flight, the act of breath inward & out / is not dying / & is not quite living either once, you asked me to cut your hair with a pair of broken scissors on your bedroom floor this is not a metaphor (but this, this i think must have been love, too) on the days you could not afford love / i did your laundry and we ate wonderbread and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches / our stomachs were always empty, somehow my heart was always full, was yours?
A PORTRAIT: I LEARN HOW TO FORGIVE A BIRD PART 2
the fever is out
grown by the day
god
is outgrown by your
lover, the clock lights all
the rooms love
should not go, the
afternoon told me this
is my home,
i sit close to god or
to love
or to fever on your
bedroom floor,
half of our days are
this: your hands
pulling me into the
sun,
our eyes & our hands
make shapes from the air
around us
we drink up / enough for
our mouths to be full
but what about love?
nothing for a minute
but love.
Blue (fka Jude) Nguyen is a queer Vietnamese poet based out of Boston, MA. They are an Aries/Taurus cusp in love with liminal spaces. They have been nominated for Best of the Net Anthology and Best New Poets Anthology. Their poetry can be found at The Mantle Poetry and Glass: A Journal of Poetry. You can find them on Instagram: @blue.ngu and on Twitter: @queerqhost.
Previous: Zamiya Akbar • Issue 14 • Next: James H Duncan
The Mantle 