queerwork by Jane Shi

27
years later
we found a droplet
of hope in soil-lined rocks soft
ankle palms a mug of some avocado
plant tall & tentative so bodied
& ready to learn
how

to fold
pie-slices of forests
into sculptural breaths
forgiving secrets be-shadowed
& lamp-kissed skin etched patterns
marking crevice after crevice
the faith of our
makeshift

hand
drift designs
you tell me my
home is a knife
pleat fold & you are
right & good
in whatever
language
that  

that
is right
& good in
because the
curious & queer
workings of this
makeshift room
is brick walls
crumbling
into bits of
scrap

paper
whiteness
fading into lamp
-shades of mountains
through our eager
so very sore
& eager
hands

This poem was featured in Issue 07 of Canthius.

---

Jane Shi is a queer Chinese settler living on the unceded, traditional, and ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Her writing has appeared in Briarpatch Magazine, The Malahat Review, Plenitude, PRISM, and Room, among others. She wants to live in a world where love is not a limited resource, land is not mined, hearts are not filched, and bodies are not violated. Find her on Instagram at @pipagaopoetry.