Poetry Competition: Sabrina Huang

i promise

someday we’ll pick white jasmine blooms

and taste their honeyed fumes

we’ll hear a sparrow’s whistled airs

and crunch on icy pears

we’ll lean into our sun-baked love

like wedded laughing doves

our swims in glassy lakes and streams

immortal in my dreams.

somenight we’ll splash in star-lit ponds

and curl up in fern fronds

we’ll wish upon long fallen suns

and bake tart cherry buns

the clouds we paint, the sky we weave

on this steamed summer’s eve

shall lie with me ‘till dismal death

your name on my last breath.

i wish

please run with me through verdant plains

and tame crazed azure waves

let’s soar past our old inky skies

and pick the moon that shines

ride stars with me to distant worlds

and someday we’ll grow old

beneath green groves and shaded dew

and live our lives anew.

i’ll fold a thousand paper cranes

before selene shall wane,

i’ll call for each stark ivory horse

until my voice runs hoarse

i’ll pray for blessings from venus

to keep sparks between us

i’ll swim through styx and brave her heat

to stay with you - my sweet.