THE FOLLOWING POEM WAS SELECTED IN WINGWORD POETRY PRIZE 2023 LONGLIST.

My parent's deep wrinkles look at me

And pretend to be forgotten

They wish their kid to be reborn

With no memory of early life

They wish to elope from being who they are

But how do I not remember those set of eyes?

Do I disassociate and numb out or

Do I become like them to

make it even

And solve the puzzle of precisely which darkness paralyzed them

Is it easy to defecate behind a wall with a lock

come out and cook another meal?

Should I let the kids wonder where

do all the stories come from?

Every single adult keeps

alerting their kids about whom?

How do they never notice

every autoimmune living within the same walls?

Why does both God and evil

need to be feared?

And where do the hidden great men live?

Are they doomed to be humans too?

I would like to go to the world they are saving.

Why none of them meet any of us?