Poet of the MonthJoanna ValenteSeptember 03, 2020Jiaoyang Li, poetry, poet of the month

Jiaoyang Li: September 2020 Poet of the Month

Poet of the MonthJoanna ValenteSeptember 03, 2020Jiaoyang Li, poetry, poet of the month

Clip

The guy online says hi to me.
Hi, we both have horses in our profile photos, such a coincidence.

What's up? What're your current goals?
What superpower do you want to have?

I say I am busy, I am planning to make a brand new zine
the name will be "Clip", click the clip - like click the clinic

like clinging to cliffs- and eventually to collaborate
my mission is to have no critical reviews

Only artistic responses & only salons, residences
Only fellowships, pizzas, prizes & communities.

He says same. It's like his poly situation,
into which he has been sired by his girlfriend

last October & he's become more happy and positive
& warm enough to sire other luckys.

I say: That's not the same. But what's the point for you to be a poly-vampire?
He says: to accumulate, to infect, to harvest,

to be fulfilled & to be balanced, more opportunities & less jealousy
& the war should be won by the democrats.

I say: O. It's 3 o'clock in the morning and only one month left till the end of the year.
I say I can always hear water leaking from the broken AC.

He says they are speaking: strike me, strike me.
He says time runs too fast when we are talking.

He says we've both typed the line "I need some space" in the past ten minutes,
He says we are a good match.

I see / horses in my head run through space after space / one of them want to own a space /one of them want to show up in different places / one of them is running too fast to be looked at / one of them is riding backwards and forwards / stretching five parts of its body.

Jiaoyang Li is a poet and translator from China. Currently she lives in New York.

Joanna Valente