Poetry

Logo of The Strand

Liminality

to catch a bus in its natural habitat, you must stay alert and aware. these are fickle, erratic beasts, ostensibly diurnal, occasionally nocturnal, their migration patterns known to be predictably unpredictable. despite their size, they are relatively docile creatures—a disposition which has led to the slow erosion of their position in the food chain. competition […]

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Abstract illustration of a cupcake with devilish ears and a tail

Inferno

Illustration | Jennifer Fong Li I am not asking for much— A kiss on the cheek, a whisper of a secret. Perhaps I am the Devil’s daughter— Lust drunk and excruciating on all dimensions but one. I am demonic with angelic tendencies. I am feather light and pretty—the blue eyed kind. The favourite grandchild, if

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Artistic close-up illustration of woman's eyes and nose

Haze

Haze By Zoe Crepp Illustration | Jennifer Fong Li There’s some kind of mask covering your face, But I can see that bright flush creeping beneath the powder When I tell you where I think we should go.  Those baby doll eyes, all droopy 1930s—   Complete with mascara-darkened lashes, batting themselves at me, And that pouty

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Artistic depiction of owl with nest of spoons

Nesting

Nesting By Sam Rosati Martin Illustration | Jennifer Fong Li Watch my eyes shimmer  —in the ice with you. —I want your song, your singing.    Turn the sun off, tenderize [me], lay your voices  on my stomach.    Feed me branches and twigs— splinters—   I have been abandoned  by an owl who left plastic

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Abstract illustration of fireflies in the city

Cityscapes

Illustration | Jennifer Fong Li The heartland howls to June bugs’ cries –metallic giants, they chirp and crawlthrough mazes of boxes that grow straight upfrom ground that bears the nests of stone.   Below, the millipede rushes to work,it skids to a stop and opens its mouthsfor clouds of prey that billow and flow,rushing in-out,

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Abstract illustration of a forest

La Lucila

Illustration | Jennifer Fong Li Crossing the border between one quintana and the nextWe move from the wild to the obsceneOf private wetlands and forestry, mortar and concreteUp against the golden River of Silver shoreline, a breathing carcinogenIt funnels the borderland between our place and the sun.   There’s a Starbucks now, north of the

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