Falling into Earth – Aiden Heung
I have imagined him
with this creased
landscape woven
into his eyes;
no sky is immense,
no winnowed heaps
of hills difficult,
no gullied ravines too deep.
Maybe he thinks so too,
one foot on the rusted
rung of this pagoda,
daring the reseda
smoke of spring
to a halt. Steepled
above him and me,
the travertine likeness
of a man(or a buddha
or a fata morgana)
with folding hands,
his imposing shadow
falling into the rock
throat of the earth.
Perhaps we will fall
too, after we ascend
to the high— there
aspens speak
the language
of the flowing fog.
Aiden Heung is a poet born and raised on the edge of Tibetan Plateau. He holds an MA in literature from Tongji University in Shanghai. His poems have been published or are forthcoming in numerous magazines including Poet Lore, Hobart, Cha, 声韵诗刊 and other places. He received the 2019 Hongkong Proverse Poetry Prize.