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In Absentia-land: A Romance

Poetry by Muriel Leung
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In Absentia-land, we become two tiny terrors in a dead year. Two blitzed countries and the artifact of sleep. In this world I pray: unshutter us. Once, we knew a newness like a wool coat. Now we sharpen our heads against stone—to be sparked back to life. There, there, says the tundra. What do you see? The primordial singe. Gifted two pairs of marble glass, we lay on a briar bed and place the glass over our eyes. This is how I want to love you—mouth full of cyanide kelp and the words—they soot. By way of book and bone, we opt to mimic-pray.


Muriel Leung is the author of Bone Confetti, winner of the 2015 Noemi Press Book Award. A Pushcart Prize nominated writer, her writing can be found or is forthcoming in Gulf Coast, Drunken Boat, The Collagist, Fairy Tale Review, and others. She is a recipient of fellowships to Kundiman and VONA/Voices Workshop. She is the Poetry Co-Editor of Apogee Journal and co-host of The Blood-Jet Poetry Hour podcast. Currently, she is a Dornsife Fellow in Creative Writing and Literature at University of Southern California. She is from Queens, NY.  ​