Of Gods & Strangers
by Tina Chang
ISBN: 978-1-935536-17-8
paper, 100 pages, $15.95
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Last night I found my face below the water in my cupped hands.
The mask made of copper and bone criss-crossing to make a smirk,
a false glamour, a plated glaze.
I unwound myself from the heavy
machinery of my body's burden. The lute, the light, chime.
I'll get up and partner myself with music, the purple moon
peeling itself like a plum. Men stand in a circle and
they will ask and ask again. I want to pick the thick bud,
to lose myself in the body's posture bending in or away, to let
my majesty and birthright go
and gesture toward a waking life.
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