THIS MANIFESTO IS DESIRABLE
by Yi Wei
The love I’ve known is the love of
two people staring
not at each other, but in the same direction.
—BIDART
Could’ve pulled the quote of Bidart saying “now
all you see is that I am luggage” or “I am
grateful.” Could’ve told the woman passing me
I wasn’t looking at her boyfriend. Could’ve fucked
her boyfriend. The steel construction we’re all
trapped in as we pass, it’s been there since May.
Since the car was smashed open by an oak, my
parents took me to the dealership. Back then,
I was too young to be left alone. Yes, that man
held my parents hostage with a ten page contract.
We were in the backroom and he had them
kiss for it. Wouldn’t give it otherwise. Poems
dwell here. The fever pitch. All those molecules
to give the illusion I am walking, thinking. Then,
as the makeshift roof disappeared, I did not look
back. It was raining above me.
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.