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.

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