Ellen Chang-Richardson | PLEASE TELL ME THIS WILL NOT LAST FOREVER

PLEASE TELL ME THIS WILL NOT LAST FOREVER

chapel street shifts pitch deep winter;

its edges, sharper its scents brighter, brittle

like peppermint                  or bone

where fever        bush frozen

berry holly       reaches its thorns to bristle

my fingers with its bitter tang

………………………………where deep—

beneath       permafrost and

rust and dirty snow slush lies     me

……….covered, cold in remnants of

an old white school song

……….……….……….……….our home

and native land           haunting

my memory of spring.

Author’s Bio

Ellen Chang-Richardson (she/her) is an award-winning poet and editor of Taiwanese and Cambodian-Chinese descent. The author of three chapbooks including snap, pop, performance (Gap Riot Press), her work has appeared in untethered, Watch Your Head: Writers & Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis, and The Fiddlehead, among others.
www.ehjchang.com