2 Poems by Laura Wang
I Have Been Trying to Map for Absence
I have been trying to map for absence; I take the same new route on every walk, not near the storefronts’ ribbed metal faces. Today, spring sunshine has stopped me outside the elementary school. An easy wind shakes the magnolia tree. Yesterday it was filled with pink-and-white froth. It looks full today, but how can it be? Today, the cracked sky is not cloudless. Nor, any longer, is the grass. There, see, on the ground, a soft slaughter of petals. In a week, I will pass this tree again. I will turn to face these same broad branches. I will not know how to mourn before such lonely green.
October Diary #2
I woke up later than planned (but still on time). I ate breakfast and drank coffee. I walked to the train to the train to the train. I walked to class where we talked about stories, grief, and salvation. I went home. My meals were my own cooking. Freedom is moving in my own body, my own clothes, my own direction. How easy to forget the cages underneath my feet, locked in my name.
Laura Wang lives in Brooklyn, where she writes stories and teaches human beings about molecules. She is currently an MFA candidate at Sarah Lawrence College. Most notably, she is frequently found in close proximity to delicious snacks, and wasting time on Twitter at @laura_c_wang.
Nia Chavez is an Illustrator + Designer from Bedstuy. She is a Pratt graduate with a BFA in Communications Design. Nia loves befriending cats, all seven 90 Day Fiancé spinoffs, grouping her Spotify playlists by year and mood, AND when you check out her Instagram and her website.
This honorarium has been directed at the poet’s request to Survived & Punished New York. About: S&P New York is a grassroots prison abolition organization, dedicated to freeing criminalized survivors of gender violence held in prisons in New York. Currently, S&P New York is focused on #FreeThemNY campaign, calling on Governor Cuomo to immediately use his clemency powers to free people from prisons.