Audrey Xi

Swollen River

i. watermarks

The sky’s fist ruptures
the plump throat of the leathered soil.

Her fingernails dig
into the collarbone of the silken valley.

Her coiled wrist wrings
the clouds into limp cotton pulp.

Her hand wilts
across the valley’s chest, etches

her clouded fingerprints
against erasure.


ii. fated

Call the flood destiny, the dam
meant to splinter the spine
of a Chinese village, meant

to scalp the car tires
of their mud, to strip their thumbs
from bone with the thrash

of the windshield glass.

Call the lovers destined
to die beneath the osmanthus tree
they planted six summers ago, flowers

first muddying their chests
and arms, then the crests
of their knees. Then, the waves

slinging them headfirst into its roots.
Then, pitch black—their eyes
wide open.


iii. swallow

They swallow rugged skies.
They swallow butterflies.

They swallow alright.
They swallow dying light.

They swallow air cream-
white.

They swallow searching light.
They swallow the body’s
            lucid twilight.


iv. rebirth?

Air. A feather of ice
caving against my chest.
A feather of ice melting.


v. buried heart [after Ocean Vuong]

Far across the distance
her fingers mother
the river’s curtains—seething
and fringing, tugging
at the wrinkles spreading her back
into ripples of knotting fear.

Her stomach sinks, but not how it once sunk
before—the veined bud
inside of her now wilting, plucked and shedding
blood pollen.

I see you, I feel
            the curve of his head
between her arms, her breath static
            against her clammy cheek.

You're here, there's nothing I fear
but the water’s fingers, outstretched
to claim her vanishing daughter—

Audrey Xi is a poet from San Ramon, California. Her writing was supported or recognized by the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio and publications at school and worldwide. She is Co-Editor for her school yearbook, Gaela Mor, and Assistant Editor for the Words Beyond Bars Project, an anthology for incarcerated writers. When she's not tracking Formula One races or dancing, you can find her on late-night runs or deep in conversation practicing one of the languages she's learning.