YES, I SCROUNGED AROUND IN BED REMEMBERING US.
I LAY IN FETAL POSITION FOR AT LEAST A YEAR. MY
HEART PIECES MADE A FETAL COLLAGE ON THE TILE
AND GOT LODGED IN THE GROUT. I HAD A POPSICLE TO
DISTRACT MYSELF. I LOVED YOU ALL THE WAY AROUND IT.
I TRIED TO WRITE ABOUT IT AND CAME UP WITH NOTHING.
I COULDN’T THINK ABOUT IT WITHOUT COMING UP
WITH SOMETHING. I TRIED NOT TO. FOR A WHILE I THOUGHT
THIS WOULD BE A BLANK PAGE, THE END OF IT, THE JOKE
EASY AND ON ME. I’M FLYING INTO THE LYRICAL BUT
IT’S MORE WORK THAN IT’S WORTH TO MAKE YOU GOOD
AND CONVERSATIONAL. MY MOTHER ALWAYS TOLD ME
SOMEONE WOULD KNOW WHAT I WAS AND YOU BECAME
LIKE A WATER TOY, BIGGER AND BIGGER UNTIL IT WAS
WHAT I SUSPECTED ON THE PACKAGING, CARTOONISH
AND REAL, MESSIAH AND SHRUNKEN WHEN EXPOSED
TO AIR. MY MOTHER ALWAYS TOLD ME TO LOOK FOR
SOMETHING I WAS ALWAYS IN THE PROCESS OF FINDING
BECAUSE IT IS IN THAT MOMENT THAT I HAVE NOTHING.
I WANTED FOR NOTHING. I SETTLED FOR WHAT WAS LEFT
WHICH WAS MYSELF IN THE END. ON THE STREET SOMETIMES
I SEE A SPLINTERED MIRROR AND THINK OF YOU. I SEE
A BIRD EATING A PILE OF SHIT AND THINK OF YOU. I SEE
A CHILD AND THINK OF YOU. I SEE A CHILD AND FORGIVE
MYSELF. I RETURN TO THE PAGE AND MAKE A PILE OF SHIT
FOR THE BIRD TO EAT. I RETURN TO THE PAGE AND MAKE.

Yi Wei is a writer unconditionally supportive of Palestinian resistance and liberation. Her work has been awarded or placed for the Frontier OPEN, the Lois Morrell Poetry Prize, the Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry, the Sappho Prize for Women Poets, Best of the Net, and the Lorraine Williams Poetry Prize. She is currently editing at AAWW and writing at NYU as a Writer In the Public Schools fellow.

Yung-wu (she/her) is a self-taught abstract artist based in Peekskill, New York. Influenced by her childhood in New York City, where she had access to countless museums, as well as her family’s rich history in the arts (including calligraphers, musicians, and painters) in Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea, her work takes on a unique perspective of multi-cultural experiences and classic techniques. Working primarily with acrylic on canvas, Yung-wu’s art centers around the exploration of identity, rooted in her Korean heritage and American upbringing. Yung-wu's work continues to gain recognition through exhibitions at venues in New York such as the Affordable Art Fair in Manhattan, Li Tang Gallery in Albany, as well as a solo exhibition, "Ban Mal," at Eleventh Hour Art Gallery in Brooklyn.