• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • #Help1Writer
  • Publishing
    • Publishing 101
    • Self-Publishing 101
    • Pitch Contests (soon)
    • Find an Agent (soon)
    • Publishers
    • Literary Magazines
    • Query Coaching (soon)
    • Editing Services
    • Conferences (soon)
  • Spotlight
    • Featured Authors
    • From Famous Authors
    • Short Stories
    • Poetry
    • Art
  • Contests
    • EWR Writing Contests
    • Other Writing Contests
  • Writing Lab
    • Writing Lab 101
    • Writing Prompts
    • Resources for Writers
    • Editing Services
  • Submissions
    • Guidelines
    • Submit to EWR
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Write for Us
    • Advertise
  • Social
    • Hub
    • Email
    • Forums
    • Members
    • Register
    • Log In

EveryWriter

A New Community of Writers

  • Poetry
  • Short Stories
  • Book Publisher Listings
  • Literary Magazine Listings
  • Classifieds
You are here: Home / Poetry / Three Hours by Helen Zhou

Three Hours by Helen Zhou

Three Hours
by Helen Zhou

At four in the morning we’ll greet behind the
Back wall of my house,
Barefoot and swaddled in bandit-colour.
We’ll grab hands and hurtle ourselves,
Screaming
Through the snoozing streets
And startle the moon into spilling its
Light into the windows of insomniacs—
We’ll duck into the blackest cul-de-sac in the city.

We’ll vault over stars and rusty skeletons,
Splurging our cells,
Spending sleeves and threads,
Crawl bare-shouldered through someone’s back garden
And indulge adrenaline in its flirtatious behaviour;
We’ll laugh and we’ll cry and we’ll bark like rabid dogs.
We’ll pry apart the ugliest wound stitches in the neighborhood,
Haunt them, stitch them back and
Call them our own war scars.

We’ll find out that little glade in the park
With the prison-bars trees and we’ll play out our drama:
You’ll be my (female) prince and I’ll blind myself
And kiss you madly, oh for the hell of it.
We’ll switch roles and we’ll play out Insanity.
We’ll tear the threads from the ground and hear it bleed,
Hear it bleed with fright;
Hear the birds stir in bewilderment from our
Raw and greenhorn violence.

When seven approaches we’ll lodge by the roadside and
Sniffle and sneeze in the cold hiss of approaching dawn,
Smoke the moon till it disappears from the sky
And we materialize like coffee stains.
When that spectral gong hits itself, just once, in its chest—
We’ll scramble to our feet, flee home like scattered pearls
And we’ll shower and starch ourselves into white collars
And fawn the route to school and we’ll
Get good grades.

Helen Zhou was highly commended in the Inspired by Tagore Writing Competition (2011), awarded first place in the Torrance Legacy Creative Writing Awards (2011) and was a Commended Foyle Young Poet (2012). Her poems have been published in BODY Literature,The Poetry Society and Spork Press amongst others. She currently resides in Los Angeles.

2+

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Current Contests

Write On

Classic

Is There a Santa Claus 1897

Is There a Santa Claus 1897

The following, reprinted from the editorial page of the New York Sun, was written by the late Mr. Frank P. Church: We take pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun: Dear […]

On Hanging a Stocking at Christmas by Charles S. Brooks

On Hanging a Stocking at Christmas (1920)  by Charles S. Brooks As Christmas is, above all, a holiday for children, it is proper in its season to consider with what regard they hold its celebration. But as no one may really know the secrets of childhood except as he retains the recollection of his own, […]

More Posts from this Category

Mission

Around our site

  • Poetry
  • Short Stories
  • Book Publisher Listings
  • Literary Magazine Listings
  • Classifieds

Short Stories

Literary Magazines

Book Publishers

EWR: All for 1 One for All

Spotlight

Footer

Other

  • Join us!
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Newsletter
  • Jobs
  • Forum
  • Questions

Categories

Search Users

Search for:

Newsletter

Copyright © 2021 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in