I keep thinking there is an august by Jenny Zhang

I keep thinking there is an august

by Jenny Zhang

if there is an august

there is an august

I would probably write every day

but some days I get caught up

rubbing my pussy

checking for pimples

green ones pop on their own

when I need to cum

or when I’m flicking cum out

beautiful white globs that dry mid-air

I would be lazier than this

but then it would be

celestial

a star in midsummer

summer solstice long gone

the weird feeling of being alone

of consummating love

why do my friends look forward

to the best day of their lives

do they secretly wish

they were already dead?

do I?

does he?

do all of us

already know something

of death

the next life

the old world

in the old country

they ate the horses they rode on

and no one said anything stupid

like how life is both impossible

and happening at the same time

no one spoke thru the ground to touch

- god -

but that was the old country

where my mother is from

where you’re from

your mother studied my mother

your recreational sports came from our rivers

your houses were decorated

with objects so rare my people have only heard about them

in songs passed down by the one family member who befriended

a European traveler

whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy me

yr people cried

while visiting the old country

where I have never been

the place where I was first touched

a sudden bloom of algae

in the ancient lake

where all the animals touched skin to skin fur to fur paw to paw fin to fin mouth to mouth hole to hole and became family

Jenny Zhang was born in Shanghai and grew up in New York. She is the author of the poetry collection Dear Jenny, We Are All Find and the story collection Sour Heart.

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