milky air
silent plains
it could be snow
this might be another country
crossing the Yangtze
we are grace in the making
and the train hums
like a man I want to love
bare trees appear
singular in winter bodies
oversized nests
must be minds
I hear wind and morning
locked in a room
count nine plastic bags
under four clouds
mud, cigarettes
cold hands
cities grow rings
nests remain
this country and I live
hardly speaking with each other
and snow has landed
About the Author
Madeleine Slavick’s eight books include Fifty Stories Fifty Images of Hong Kong, her most recent collection; My Favourite Thing, a bestseller in Beijing; Round – Poems and Photographs of Asia, winner of Seattle’s Bumbershoot Book Award; and China – The Dragon Awakes, a bestseller in Hong Kong. As a photographer, she has exhibited her work in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Born in the United States, she has lived in Hong Kong for almost 25 years, and now resides in Wairarapa, New Zealand.
