Conversations Deferred

I tell myself that he won’t be able to find me in China
and so I sign up for language classes, learn all about tea
watch goofy romantic movies about Chinese girls and ghosts
wear long skirts to hide my enormous feet. I tell myself

that things will be better when I’m in China, that somewhere
in those cloud-topped mountains I see pictured
in cheap Chinese fans and calligraphy scrolls, I will find some cave
where I can hunker down, like a monk, and no one
will know I’m there, not even him.

 

Holly Day’s poetry has recently appeared in The Cape Rock, New Ohio Review, and Gargoyle. Her newest poetry collections are A Perfect Day for Semaphore (Finishing Line Press), In This Place, She Is Her Own (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press), A Wall to Protect Your Eyes (Pski’s Porch Publishing), I’m in a Place Where Reason Went Missing (Main Street Rag Publishing Co.), and The Yellow Dot of a Daisy (Alien Buddha Press).

Ryn Holmes originated from the bottom and top of California before residing along the Gulf Coast of Florida. She is a partner in K & K Writing Services and a co-editor of Panoply ezine. Over the years, her award-winning written and photographic works have appeared in online and print journals.