You lift me to savor cherry blossoms,
our young faces blush ripe apple.
Our baby girl giggles, raises the tall stuffed giraffe
we bargained for at a yard sale.
In our shared apartment a college friend
plays guitar till dusk.
Now our faces rippled, our hair silvered
and the friend a memory.
Our girl returns to us.
Each day the puppy walks us.
Beyond unspeakable traces
we still hold hands and tighter.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 25, Issue 5.
Xiaoly Li is a 2022 recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship Grant in Poetry. Her poetry collection Every Single Bird Rising is forthcoming with FutureCycle Press (2023). Her poetry has appeared in Spillway, American Journal of Poetry, PANK, Atlanta Review, Chautauqua, Rhino, and elsewhere.
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