That Fire
Someone who has been burned
learns to run very fast
She learned to be brave
learned to run
learned to find the window
before the door was locked
but never learned to obey
“That fire was for your own good”
She learned that love
first pours oil over you
then praises you for finally learning to shine
but she cannot learn to love
only to flee by instinct
she no longer explains her wounds
nor gives thanks for pain
She only runs
past ashes
past smiling faces
past those hands
cloaked in kindness
Later she stops,
looks back and sees the fire still burning—
not burning her
but the words:
“Everything I do is for your own good”
When a Petal Decides to Breathe
A petal pressed between the pages of a book
held by chapters, by intricate, heavy words
so flat so thin
creased, hurt, holding on—
but never broken
away from light and sound for so long
that even the wind has withdrawn its memory
no longer remembering her scent
So long
that she, too, begins to believe
she is part of this page
that this flat shape is her own, docilely
pressed between the disciplined lines
“Am I still breathing”
Back then, a kind traveller
could not bear to let a flower wither
and so pressed her between
“should” “future”
“be sensible” “stability”
these thick and cold pages
to protect her fragile body
in this safe darkness
Suddenly, the pages turn
a gust of wind carrying the light of freedom
makes her tremble slightly
like someone suffocating who suddenly breaks the surface
and the whole book hears it—
she is still here, she wants to bloom again
the wind, carrying her almost imperceptible scent
has barely moved her rigid body
—“Snap”
a sudden crash
everything returns to dead silence
before her fragile dream can wake
the book closes again
leaving only a petal
thinner, more obedient,
slowly waiting to rot,
no longer breathing
Wanchen Cao is a Chinese poet and creative writing researcher. She is the author of Seven O’Clock (Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House, 2018). Her work explores dreams, memory, embodied experience and self-writing. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Southampton.