One Thousand Is Not Nearly Enough - Alice Liu

the sea birds
fold into the sky like 
ever so many love notes, like
they know not of death.

senbazuru, I think, wondering
how they float like that, like
mass without weight.

how effortless a composition,
sheets and sheets of waxy Bristol
creasing form into horizon.

and I, living dog-eared and heavy-handed,
mortal, wine-flushed, violent 
with desire. 

and you, who will be gone soon,
tell me to lighten up,
that even I will grow old someday.

we can do this, for now. we can
watch the sea fold into the sky like

ever so many tissue paper wishes. 

"One Thousand Is Not Nearly Enough" and "Blooming" were originally published in the 2020 print issue of R2.