"命運" by Sophia Lekeufack

命運 (mìngyùn) — the chinese translation of the english word “fate”

The moon melted in my arms

so I took her place in the sky.

And soon my essence transformed,

an exhausted subsidiary swelling

within my breasts,

perpetually bound in service

to the vast explorers of the earth.

Oh, how my lusting eyes watch

as his warm body, replete

with the fragrance of promise

and prospect,

wanders under my cool brilliance

while I sit there, still,

languishing in my lithic divots,

where my pools of tears

lay to slumber.

My pools will remain full

and my presence ceaseless

and my radiance abetting,

frozen in the realm of time

among the callous landscape of the night

while the zealous wanderer runs free,

painted, under the nurture

of the maternal moon.

Sophia Lekeufack is a first-generation high school junior based in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area. Through the mediums of poetry and prose, she amplifies not only her stories but the stories of those who came before her. If she is not lying in her bed reading a Patti Smith memoir, you can find her at the local Thai restaurant devouring some drunken noodles.