JADE Y. LIU
DROUGHT
fifty-two days without rain is enough
for even my lowlight cactus to introvert
into claw. the spike-tipped leaves grasp
nothing they can keep to survive
this artificial sahara of a childhood
room. i watch, i learn how to bend
is to admit your wanting. these days
i am always bending
towards slant slivers of warm sunlight
as if one thing could replace another
i hold my own hand. i become a mother
of neglect. my fingers leaden with each other
for one more arid night, forgive me
for needing empirical proof
that life is still tethered
to unwet earth
that we are all made soft
in our thirst.
Jade Y. Liu is a Chinese-Canadian writer and poet from the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (Vancouver, BC). A recipient of the 2020 George McWhirter Prize in Poetry, she won Reader’s Choice in CV2’s 2022 2-Day Poem Contest and was shortlisted for Arc Poetry Magazine‘s 2022 Poem of the Year. Other work appears in HAD, Wrongdoing Mag, and elsewhere. Find her on Twitter at @JadeYuLiu.