Amy Chai Poems

Route thirty winds to the south of town;
there is only dirt where the mall once stood,
all three grocery stores have been boarded up.
Habitat houses, new and sturdy boxes,
...

Prometheus gifted us with stolen fire;
Its flickering essence filled our eyes with light.
Warmth seeped through the pith and marrow of our bones;
And for the first four hundred lifetimes,
...

With two wings, you covered your face.
What was it that you could not bear to see?
My heart is melted like wax.
...

It was never the fruit that mattered. Sweet flesh
of apricot only hid a stone
smelling of bitter almond.
We split that fruit without tasting;
...

Very small things defy the laws of physics
That which cannot be divided is nothing but space
or light, or energy
...

Today I walk above ground, grateful
for gold-tinged leaves and rarefied air.
Clay, gravel, mica, dust—
remember me and gently pull
...