Stella Wong
[is the median the ordinary now]
is the median the ordinary now to be the normal next? – but the towers are planted upon the land
and its foundation stones are what are – shall we have one more day among the lilacs before we
are locked in again – braid of knowledge, spire upwards, pull at my neutrons, pull at my
thoughts, make them unwind, use them as a ladder – up, up, the twisting of dna – find a suitable
partner – excel in your class – wind your strands together – produce the x generation – the next
children we’ll let fall off the roof – on their way down, they won’t learn to fly.
Stella Wong is the author of SPOOKS, winner of the Saturnalia Books Editors Prize, and AMERICAN ZERO, selected for the Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize by Danez Smith. A graduate of Harvard and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Wong’s poems have appeared in POETRY, Colorado Review, Lana Turner, Bennington Review, Denver Quarterly, the LA Review of Books, and more.