My wing tips savage with faraway
September, 2025
Two poems by Stephanie V Sears
Albatrossing
Convenient spot at the edge of a bluff
with a sheer drop
to the ocean’s pendulum.
In the salted toetoe grass grown
tall on a southern point where
seasonally I return to family life
and surrender to limp eyelids,
an enclosed sense of being,
a sand bowl matted with feather and twig,
rebuilt against a vast, frosted breath,
once more, on this familiar crag.
Grounded by chicks and duty
from dusk to dusk. Along the cliff
over a cold lilac sea, hovering,
suspended on ether’s heft
before the lift or dive,
snatching fish under waves,
‘til folded, I warm the nest.
Even then, long distance owns me,
wing tips savage with faraway.
Fog keeps calling me
to the Polaris Australis’ swell.
My nostrils catch the lure
of ocean’s scarpering verge
and swooping gravid with storm,
icebergs adrift on cobalt halos,
white mountains’ sharp gleaming.
The urge to wander draws me
in tides goaded by winds
that smell of stars.
I plan no landing,
only to fly geometries
concealed in constant flight
of boundless space. In air shafts,
nesting. Through celestial openings,
ever gliding.
Animal Denomination
Carry the weight of sentiment lightly
As do savages their beauty,
Make light of your repute
As crafty, fox, bring wild, wild red
To this over-ploughed sea, swiftly,
Take a bite out of recumbent summer.
Molting, wired in Ts and As,
How you hunger at my heels
Just because I call you.
Of space and scent, your way
Never spirals out of control
Except now that you confide in me.
I dish out magical meals
On the quiet garden steps
Nightly absconded without a thank you.
Offered treasure to your piracy
As to me once the Easter chocolates
Hidden in a grove’s cuddies.
Sleep easy under pulverized stars,
As I will, thinking of you.
We’ll conjure each other’s dreams,
Though I can never spy on you
As well as you watch over me
From your own pathways.
Translated into Chinese by Florence Ng:
信天翁之姿
懸崖邊緣，位置便利，
朝海洋的鐘錘
直插到底。
在南端
高聳的鹽漬芒草叢中，
我每季都會回來組織家庭，
眼瞼下垂，
遺世獨立，
守著鋪滿羽毛和枝椏的沙碗，
頂著龐大、結霜的氣息，
在熟悉的峭壁上重新修造，
以雛鳥和責任為磐石。
日復日的黃昏，沿著懸崖，
在冰冷淡紫色的海面上，我盤旋
在天際懸浮，
爬升或下潛，
從波濤下抓魚，
直至摺起身子，把巢温暖。
即便如此，長程依然支配著我，
我的翅尖觸碰遠方的野性。
霧靄持續呼喚我
前往南極星的湧浪。
我的鼻孔捕捉到海洋的誘惑，
它的邊陲瞬息萬變，
它的猛撲孕育暴風，
鈷藍色光暈上冰山漂浮，
白色山脈散發尖銳的光澤。
浪遊的衝動驅使我
闖入起伏的潮汐，
風散發星辰的氣息。
我不打算著陸，
只想在無垠空間中
持續飛行出
隱密的幾何圖形。在空氣管道中
築巢。穿過天體的縫隙，
滑翔不息。
動物宗派
看輕情緒的擔子
如同野獸看輕牠們的美，
視你狡獪的名聲如浮雲吧，
狐狸，將狂野的、奔放的紅色
帶來這過度耕作的大海，趕快
咬一口慵懶的夏日。
你換毛了，瘦削的字母T和A，緊張，
多麼饞我的麵包頭，
就等我一聲呼喚。
空間和臭跡是你的方式，
不會失準，
除了此刻，你對我推心置腹。
我在寧靜的花園台階上
端出神奇美食，
夜夜如是，一聲多謝也沒有便溜走。
這是獻給你海盜行為的寶藏，
就像我從樹叢隱密處
找到藏起來的復活節巧克力。
在星星的碎屑下好好睡吧，
因為我也會在睡夢中想著你。
我們會化生彼此的夢境，
儘管我永遠沒法窺探你，
你也沒法從你行走的路上
守護我。
Stephanie V Sears is a French and American ethnologist (Doctorate EHESS, Paris 1993), freelance journalist, essayist , short story writer, and poet whose poetry recently appeared in The Comstock Review, Clementine Unbound, The Non-Conformist Magazine, SORTES, New Contrast Expanded Field, Lunaris, Fleas on the Dog, The Crank, the Cannon’s Mouth, The Sunflower Collective.. Shortlisted in 2009 for a Pushcart Prize. Her first book of poetry: The Strange Travels of Svinhilde Wilson was published by Adelaide Book in 2020. Her second poetry book Anaho was published by Arteidolia Press, NY in 2022.
Two poems by Ryan Warring Bird
GET THE HINT
Reading into the
silences
between lazy
swats of a hand,
the housefly
remains confident
that the human
still wants
to be
friends.
THE MORNING ROUTINE
Fearlessly face-first,
a grey squirrel descends
from the seventeenth floor--
in hurried pursuit of an acorn
it is statistically unlikely
to remember
burying.
Translated into Chinese by Polly Ho:
得到暗示
讀懂
在慵懶的
手掌撲打之間的
片刻寧靜，
家蠅
仍然相信
人們
依然想
成為
朋友。
晨間日常
毫無畏懼地面部朝下，
一隻灰松鼠
從十七樓降落地面 ——
匆匆地尋找一顆橡果
在統計學上來說
牠不太可能記得
埋藏過它。
Ryan Warring Bird wrote these poems during a rough patch when he experienced a breakup and being strung along by a company that had no intention of promoting him. His poems can be found in upcoming issues of Eunoia Review, Third Wednesday, and Gyroscope Review. He is also a father, tutor, and member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
A poem by Ena Lee
Calvin
Everyone calls their cat “The Cat”
dripping with the unique crenellation of capital letters
but my cat was the cat, the best cat, the most wonderful cat.
We talk about our cats with the same blind love
for their baby manipulations,
the way they hook you back in after
smashing your favorite mug,
your beloved mint, or as mine did,
deliberately looking at you
then the phone
then back to you before
punting the phone into the bathtub.
The deliberation of that destruction
is what makes us love them—
they are as fitful and fickle as I am,
prone to pushing your button
one more time. That cat’s as
human as I am, or was,
because with him gone
what’s my standard of behavior?
When I saw the shape he was in, I wept.
Desiccated, he saw me weeping with the one eye
that remained to him, he licked his chops and my face
and touched his nose to my nose, and, so horrifically weak,
tucked his head against mine. Cry no more.
But I’m still crying, of course, how can I not?
He was such a wonderful cat.
I did the second night of the deathbed vigil,
my dad did the last. He woke up to the cat
purring in his arms. Satisfied, the cat then tried to drag himself up,
half paralyzed, half blind, liver and kidneys gone,
but my dad caught the signal and gently lifted him
to where my girlfriend and I were curled—
and that cat, so horrifically weak, lunged for us
with all his strength that remained to him.
Hurriedly my dad put him down
and the cat settled against my legs and hers,
she got the head,
I got the butt, as usual.
And the cat purred.
Everyone talks about their cat as “The Cat”,
but let me tell you,
that was some cat.
Translated into Chinese by Polly Ho:
每個人都稱他們的貓「那隻貓」
帶著那獨特的戰牆般的大楷字母
不過我的貓才是那隻貓，最好的貓，最棒的貓 。
我們談到自己的貓都帶著同樣盲目的愛
來形容牠們那些幼稚的小把戲，
譬如牠們可以在打碎你心愛的杯
或薄荷之後，就像我那隻貓那樣，
眼甘甘地望著你
然後看電話
再回過頭來看你，
然後把電話踢進浴缸，
你仍然會愛牠如命。
那種蓄意的破壞，
正是我們愛牠們的原因 ——
牠們和我一樣，任性善變，
總愛按你的按鈕
多一次。那隻貓和我一樣
有人性，或曾經一樣，
因為他已離開了
甚麼才是我的行為標準呢？
當我看到他的樣子時，我哭了。
他乾巴巴地看著我，用僅剩下的一隻眼
看著我流淚，舔了舔嘴嘴和我的臉，
用鼻子碰了碰我的鼻子，然後，虛弱得可怕，
他把頭埋進我懷裡。別再哭了。
但是我仍不住地流淚，當然，怎麼才不哭呢？
他可是我最棒的貓喔。
我負責守夜的第二個晚上，
我爸爸守最後的一夜，他醒來時，
貓在他懷裡呼嚕作響。貓很滿足，
然後試圖自己爬起來，半身不遂，半盲，肝和腎也壞了，
但是我爸爸明白他的意思，溫柔地抱起他
放到我和我女朋友蜷縮在一起的地方 ——
那隻貓，虛弱得可怕，
用盡他剩下全部的氣力撲向我們。
爸爸趕緊放下他
他安然地躺在我和她的大腿上，
她抱著貓的頭，我抱著貓的屁股，一如既往。
然後他就開始呼嚕。
每一個人都稱他們的貓「那隻貓」，
但是讓我告訴你，
那隻是了不起的貓。
Ena Lee is a nonbinary poet and labor organizer born and raised in New York City, with some Appalachia in their bones. Their work has been previously seen in DSA Build's Special Poetry Issue, Motherwort & Rose's Grieving As Shapeshifting magazine, Poetry Is A Team Sports (PITS) Magazine, as well as fifth wheel press’s brainrot anthology. When they're not organizing, they're hanging out with a very dramatic orange cat named Tobias, who likes to wrestle with angels.