LOVE IS A NEON LIGHT

Love is a neon light
after Rene Magritte’s Ceci n'est pas une pipe

the scent
of your
garden

the ex-
qui-
site

side of
our life
the love

of my life
the life
of yours

so damn
puffed out
from soil

so damn
washed off
to Pacific

ocean~
without
trace~~

who cares
what
now?

Last Debacle (June 1st, 2023)

After A.E. Stallings “Frist Miracle”

His soul is like a garnet stone

Shining, indelibly bound to who has made it reborn—

The discovery of a foreign hardness so marvelous

Wandering lust beyond the pig-feet calluses

Melting into the Popocatepetl or juxtaposing his fate

With the procession, many decades are preceding his mate.

His liver shrunk his heart and painted his bed sheets

Whereas he received her love in million beats;

He meant to renew his cosmic ordinance; however

He forfeited his candor with fleeting anger.

Circle of Life: We had a Great Run

My ocean

Green

My baby

Gone

Your body

Died

A body

Next to

None

Our dog

Wanting

You

The

Bloody

Shot

We’re

Played

Out

Love wasted

Love

Love

Love

Love for

Your eyes

You’re a

Ghost

I am your

Shadow

Inevitable

Time

Go to

Shanghai

After death

After life

Circle of

Life

Resurrecting

Love

Please

Resurrected

For me

I needed to look into your eyes one last time!

Now it’s you who’s exiting

You always talk about

standing near the exit sign

when I was doing a reading

Now it’s you who’s

Exiting

So swiftly and decisively

You knew it was an act

To tell me otherwise

That you had to leave me

Alone in this world of

Cruelty and carelessness

You can’t be there

For me where I needed

You like the salty water

For a fish

And now it’s fish

Without salt

You see me off

Perhaps in a bit

Of anger because of

My child-like naïveté

Thinking that I could

Save you from an

Illness that even doctors

Can’t cure

Please stand with me

To the end where

We get swept away

by Our

Ocean of Love!

Why are you so beautiful and so far?

God- you’re a cruelty

Such a cruelty

I’m shaking so bad

Why are so confident and then weak

Why are you so selfless and then selfish

What are you made of

Iron or paper

Things are turning and turning

On me

I can’t keep my shakiness away

I spent nights after nights in couch

Wishing you could climb up my balcony and touch me

You never did it but always joked around

I’m so tired of waiting or writing

I want to feel you

Not remember how I felt

I want to be with you

Not wishing to be with you

I want to shout at your convenience

Of status quo

I hate and love you

Because you are my friend

Not only my lover

You are so warm and tender

That I could melt you in my mouth

Stop acting like you care

You need to act like you dare

Ann Huang is a multilingual Chinese American poet, filmmaker and visual artist based in Newport Beach, CA. Her poetry has been featured in Denver Quarterly, Ruth Stone, CONFRONTATION, Poets Choice, and Contemporary Verse 2. She's Ephemera's June 2023 Poet. Her latest manuscript Garden by The Glass Door is the Wisconsin Poetry Series' 2024 Semi-Finalist. Her collection of poems, Saffron Splash, is forthcoming in 2024 from The Raw Art Review.