The gentle man strikes you smoothly,
tenderly confirming your words as
catalyst for his righteous retaliation
bordering the calendar indented wall.
The soft-spoken lover renders you speechless,
inciting a drought of grief, exhausting
remnants of hope with mocking cruelty.
A gingko shivers with the shadow of his fist.
The enthusiastic woman occupies you swiftly,
celebrating her infatuation with eerie
devotion, demanding your resisting dedication.
Her examination lodged forty-five rusted razors.
I now fear breathing “No” --
kindlewood of ambiguity:
Did the assaults butcher this body
to blame my softly spoken nature?
Anesce Dremen is a first generation U.S. college student who studied in four cities in China (Xi’an, Beijing, Chengdu, and Suzhou) with the support of the Critical Language Scholarship and the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship. She graduated from Carthage College with degrees in Chinese and English literature. Her bilingual work has been featured in the Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research, Xi’an Daily, Shanghai Poetry Labs, The Isolation Journals, T Ching, and Global Tea Hut, among others. She is a Fulbright 2020 ETA in India. Anesce is often found with a tea cup in hand, traveling between the U.S., China, and India. Follow her journey here: https://neverthelessaway.wordpress.com.