Two Poems

Kathryn Li
→BFA IL 2021

cherry-picked by the embodied subconscious

even this relatively disembodied existence,
faced with the prospect of

                                 no
                                 touching

of being, for
   so long, so far away,

will conjure some
                                                humble

                                anchor
a lonely

hand

(see?)
as a desperate but necessary distraction.
if it cannot be still in your company for even a moment
it is to prevent some other sensation from proving to you
that it was only ever a mirage.

now

now that there is no more stable ground to map
I find myself
                                 longing for

the snow that fell yesterday

when it happened was I

                  here,
                                 ears,
        sincere
fears

and all, or
am I always
to a degree

paralyzed, fighting myself

over some calculated fantasy?
even now?

Collaged fragments of older writing, the starting point for these poems.