WORD NERDS: this is NOT your nanay's blog

I subscribe to artist/poetess Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai's listserv, who updates her fam frequently on her upcoming performances, whereabouts and always includes a new poem. I had the pleasure of meeting her last year in NYC, and I've been a fan of her words for a while now. In regards to the rest of the post: Yeah, I'm probably going through stuff. I've learned to rearticulate love by breaking down current events and such, but a girl's gotta give it up to a good love poem every now and then. Enjoy!:


resolve

by Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai

it used to depress me
that love over time falls away

like fast-food hamburger wrappers
or used band-aids, torn from
their practice, decaying in the sun

i used to want love to last forever
or else like a piece of plutonium,
glowing hot in its chamber, dangerous
and worthwhile

it'd be kept in the
same way: metal cases armed
by two security guards, a key
in the lock, the rod jostling 'round

now, i get that love is meant to
be survived, not possessed, experienced
like sunshine, like a breeze of the ocean,
sand upon the skin.

none of these last forever
but they do return
when you seek to find them

so is the certainty of love
locked in the frightened human body
reaching out, hands flailing,

not knowing which way to turn.