Knees as a Sign of Wonder

Tianyi

I.I watched your throat melt            until it was all sound,stood over your glass            winter, the drapeslithe as light and            my vigil close to crow//I swear, mountain,            I heard knee before knell.II.All the time, clovers            all the time// spines. A drivewaydies like the sun between our arms,            and we called it Calgary// because nothingsat in the pickup truck trundling home,            or in the help//which outlasts the life.It was iron// beyond you.            The country of your neck// more than hungering.III.Weeks from when her body//            would clam shut,she reached for a candle,            and crushed it into her temple//                                            Open,she asked the Silence.                                            Gun,it echoed back.

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Tianyi is a poet based in New York. His work can be found or is forthcoming in The New England Review, Small Orange Journal, The Margins, Tupelo Quarterly among others. He is an alumnus of the Brooklyn Poets Mentorship Program.

Cover of NER 54.1

45.1

Middlebury, Vermont

Middlebury College

Editor
Carolyn Kuebler

Managing Editor
Leslie Sainz

Poetry Editor
Jennifer Chang

By publishing new fiction, poetry, and nonfiction that is both challenging and inviting, New England Review encourages artistic exchange and thought-provoking innovation, providing publishing opportunities for writers at all stages in their careers. The selection of writings in each issue presents a broad spectrum of viewpoints and genres, including traditional and experimental fiction, long and short poems, translations, criticism, letters from abroad, reviews in arts and literature, and rediscoveries. New England Review exists in a place apart from mass culture, where speed and information overload are the norm. At NER, serious writing is given serious attention, from the painstaking selection process through careful editing and publication, where finally the writer’s words meet up with a curious and dedicated readership.

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