Lover's Requiem
by Ying Liang
![girl](img/poem-girl.png)
![mask](img/poem-imgmask.png)
![burst](img/poem-burst.png)
could burrow in on myself,
collapse as an atrophied
lung would,
![lungs](img/poem-lungs.png)
stained shell of a decade-old cicada
![cicada](img/poem-cicada.png)
learn how to love an epidemic.
![gas mask](img/poem-gasmask.png)
Nirvana
![paradise](img/poem-paradise.png)
![heart](img/poem-heart.png)
save
an ache or two.
Organache.
![guts](img/poem-guts.png)
![mind](img/poem-mind.png)
![ribs](img/poem-ribs.png)
sores on my psy-
che with cool balms
and patience,
for I
have yet to smell
the stench of
abortive
hope,
the soil crawl underneath my eyes and
repose in the sweet empti-
ness beneath.
on a star—I want to be beauty-full.
♥