“Good Hulijing”, Andy Winter

after Ken Liu

they built roads of iron / trampled over temples / nights breathed oil / worse than dog piss / the land stopped singing / when they smogged its veins / in their city / birds do not chirp / they garble on wired trees / pecking at nuts & bolts / in their city / they do not believe in talismans / only the magic of coal & coin

they painted my claws with perfume / rusted my fangs away / it wasn’t enough / they sawed my limbs / into chrome / into engine / into progress / flesh / into furnace / into folklore / into fear

so i howled / till the moon shrapnelled silver / felt every glazed tile under the plates of my paws / i was steel origami / gliding through obsidian sky / leaping off ledges & beams / the bones of their city / cracking like clay

& in this jungle of metal & fire / their screams are steam

/ Andy Winter (they/them) is a gay, non-binary witch/drag artist/poet based in Singapore. They are currently a sophomore English undergraduate in NTU. Their works have been published in Cartridge Lit, Cordite Poetry Review, Corvid Queen, Freeze Ray Poetry, ANIMA METHODI: The Poetics of Mirroring, SingPoWriMo and other anthologies. They do not wish to be perceived.

2019.3Daryl Qilin YamPoetry