I want Demeter in labor.
The schisms of this dull razor
on my throat. A pearl for
a backbone or a backbone.

What I study to be less
studied and more known,
for what I touch to be
less solid, more godlike.

A tame set of gases on
Venus, where I sit writhing
for the damned, making
no mistakes in forgiving.

Shame! As if I could reconcile Earth
with this cast of children at play.

—

Amy Gong Liu is a Chinese-American writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work has been featured/is forthcoming in The Rupture, The Rumpus, Empty Mirror, RHINO Poetry, and more. She thinks too much (or perhaps too little).