Sophia Liu
Sophia Liu is a young, Chinese-American writer and artist. She lives in Long Island, NY. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, the National Council of Teachers of English, and Hollins University. She has been working as a youth writing teacher for the Princeton Learning Experience and has taught writing to students in the United States and China. Alongside writing, she devotes much of her time to creating art.
The Flowers and Us
After Yongtak Choi
We overlap like a weaved basket.
Breast touching leg, leg touching
Hand, hand touching eye.
The water is cold, but it brushes up
Against our skin gently like when
Our mothers used to bathe us.
We like the feeling of going under, just
For a while, to get our hair wet. We
Look at the flowers and the flowers look at us.
They look like thousands of little
Glistening jewels and we look like large smears
Of pale color and dark hair.
We do not interlock our fingers and we do not hold
One another. We touch accidentally and
Float with our spines. The flowers float on their own.
We are supple and lithe and warm and
Soothing. We are at liberty here, but we
Make no sound that the flowers are louder.
The petals moan. Their filaments
Coil around us and growl. They are subtle and
Controlling and cold and unknowing.
They are absent but intimidating and propagate like
Strawberries around us. Shiny epaulettes repose on their
Shoulders. We think they are pretty and pick them up to stare at.
But they lie between our breasts touching
Legs, legs touching hands, hands touching eyes,
Lips touching lips.
Sheila-Na-Gig online 