daniel liu

SOMEDAY I'LL LOVE [REDACTED]

after Frank O’Hara / after Roger Reeves / after Ocean Vuong / after Youngseo Lee

[REDACTED], i am only here to hear your last breath. running water, running lungs racing like oblivion. each gun-face is just an escape. each respiratory disease, another way to apologize. sound unfurled like a bullet, this burnt larynx is stained with tar. these organs bleed black. i will grieve for you. know this. [REDACTED], know that the opened boy is just a euphemism for an open coffin. know the moon is just a coverup for your burial. how easily borders become boundary data become men. [REDACTED], before you give yourself away, teach me. teach me the rhythm of tarnished copper. every reddening: another birth. someday, when the robots come, this memory will be important. tonight, i may be the songbird or the hunter. fire sky, coal mouths. the forest is just a seabed not yet razed and every animal is just a creation myth not yet forgotten. [REDACTED], your arms will become deathbeds. these insularities will go unpunished. this is to say i am the songbird, and as the songbird i will sing all funeral songs, even my own. [REDACTED], i am here because i am scared and full of graves.