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Speed

9/10/2018

0 Comments

 
In those days, I was a teenager.
Watched it all go by fast,
god speed and holy rollers, 
pedal to the gas on an eight-lane freeway,
the kind of speed I still dream about,
faster than poetry,
and cooler to the touch
than all the ghost stories you see.

Grandpa dying on the corner,
that was a blow.
He was six feet from the ceiling, 
cold planet in the cotton poplars,
the kind of man my mother
never talked about,
except in a silence
stuffed with stars.

Everything he owned came in a shipment.
The box mattress he slept on for
thousands
thousands 
of sleepless nights on his back
trying to catch the fan,
bothered by the summer,
spoke and told me 
in every future imaginable,
we end up with less time.

If you had been there, 
the moonbeams were the weight 
of spilled sugar on the floor.
The mind hung in the basement room,
something sublime suspended
in the air.
Back then,
we were simply neighborhood kids
falling fast through the open window.  

Inside,
the old man proffers
a blue flame of sorrow,
but says we need not be afraid.
In a hundred years,
even the site of the bombing
becomes a small clearing.
Floral curtains
blowing lightly,
let in sun.

​
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Leave a Reply.

    Cynthia X. Hua

    Cynthia X. Hua is a writer and artist based in San Francisco. She was previously a National Finalist for the Norman Mailer Awards in Poetry.

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  • Fall
    • Tayler Karinen
    • Benjamin Lindsey
    • Patrick Harrington
    • Rich Ives
    • Kelly Kotewa
    • Craig Rodgers
    • Laura Fletcher
    • Jen McConnell
    • Remi Skytterstad
  • Past Issues
    • YEAR ONE >
      • Issue 1: October >
        • Dalton Day
        • Camila Maldonado
        • Elizabeth Burton
        • Daniel Kay
        • Shelby Bevins-Sullivan
        • Ryan Havers
      • Issue 2: November >
        • Rob Sturma
        • Candi V. Auchterlonie
        • Christopher Mulrooney
        • William James
        • Andrew Rhys Young
        • Michael Cormack
        • Kayla Pongrac
      • Issue 3: December >
        • Ann Huang
        • Peter Vanderberg
        • John Sweet
        • Daniel von der Embse
        • Rebecca Dutsar
        • Sarah Kersey
        • Geramee Hensley
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        • Nolan Liebert
        • Charles Bane Jr.
        • Carly Gordon
        • Yoni Hammer-Kossoy
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        • William Butler
        • Robert A. Kaufman
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        • John Pistelli
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      • Issue 23: August >
        • Ron Gibson
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        • Jefferson Navicky
        • Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad
        • Simon Perchik
      • Issue 24: September >
        • Sally J. Johnson
        • Lewis Mundt
        • April Vázquez
        • Emma Hutson
    • YEAR THREE >
      • Issue 25: October >
        • Peter Weltner
        • Nicholas Morris
        • Ola Faleti
        • Phoebe Nicholson
      • Issue 26: November >
        • Effy Fritz
        • Maxwell Radwin
        • David Atkinson
        • Eddy Jordan
      • Issue 27: December >
        • Jon Bennett
        • Stephanie Valente
        • Leigh Cheak
      • Issue 28: January >
        • Adrienne Novy
        • John Grabski
        • Fay Sachpatzidis
        • Paulie Lipman
        • Sarah David
      • Issue 29: February >
        • Ron Gibson Jr.
        • Amanda Kabak
        • Travis Naught
        • Allen Forrest
        • Susan Monaghan
      • Issue 30: March >
        • Hannah Larrabee
        • ​Lino Anunciacion
        • Karese Burrows
        • Reneé Bibby
        • Liz Howard
        • Kalani Pickhart
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        • Daniel Blokh
        • Benjamin Harnett
        • Wheeler Light
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        • Terry Ann Wright
        • Craig Loomis
        • Thaddeus Rutkowski
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        • Alex Ivey
        • Hazem Fahmy
        • Jennifer Moore
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        • Claire Hopple
        • Maura Lee Bee
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        • Luisana Cortez
        • Aza Pace
        • Carrie Chappell
        • Adam Lock
      • Issue 36: September >
        • Jill Mceldowney
        • Leon Kortenkamp
        • Sarah Jones
        • Darren Demaree
    • YEAR FOUR >
      • Issue 37: October >
        • Hannah Stone
        • William Doreski
        • Sarah Wetzel
        • C. T. Salazar
      • Issue 38: November >
        • Kristen Ploetz
        • Stephanie Rael
        • Brittany Frederick
        • Jay Sheets
        • Andy Cashmore
      • Issue 39: December >
        • Taylor Mali
        • Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
        • John Williams
        • Iskandar Haggarty
        • Donald Hubbard
        • Kenneth Otani
        • Alex Miller
      • SPRING >
        • Simon Perchik
        • Lino Anunciacion
        • Colleen Rich
        • Donia Mounsef
        • Nitzan Meltzer Watman
        • Ann Hillesland
        • DJ Swykert
      • SUMMER >
        • Cynthia X. Hua
        • Heidi Seaborn
        • Daniel Nester
        • Ginnah Howard
        • Jonathan Bracker
      • FALL >
        • William James
        • Laura Bentley
        • Ally Ang
        • Kurt Luchs
        • Joanna Hoffman
      • Winter >
        • Danny Caine
        • Emma Wang
        • Maria McLeod
        • Darren Demaree
        • Susan J. Mitchell
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        • Katherine Fallon
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