The Winter Forecast

Abstract

The Winter Forecast Shelley Wong (bio) this open interval: when nightgowns glow & stalk the fieldin Chinese, two trees make a forestas an inoculation against loneliness, models hold hands, clutch collarless coatswho is she & where is she going—her outfit as consequencein French, the ocean is masculine, the sea femininehow does a rhyme determine fate: daughter // laughter // slaughtertwo ways to survive: analog & digitalwe can hear tree rings rendered as sounddiamonds shine in icicles, in a spidering necklaceaboard the single swan boat, she cries not the underworld!jump out of your big sister, matryoshkafor the encore, the cashmered girls sleep with velvet eyesa finger to their lips: no trespassing on the runwaywomen in black embroider orchids in the orchestra pit [End Page 114] Shelley Wong Shelley Wong is the author of the forthcoming As She Appears (YesYes Books, 2022) and the chapbook RARE BIRDS (Diode Editions, 2017), as well as the winner of the 2019 Pamet River Prize. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review, and the New Republic. She has received a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from MacDowell, Kundiman, and Vermont Studio Center. She is an affiliate artist at Headlands Center for the Arts and lives in San Francisco. Copyright © 2021 Middlebury college