Observation of Blood (previously published in The Lake) 

Today, the museum closes its doors early,
waiting;
how much of the night’s bleakness
seeps into it, enjoying the dark corridors.
The Indian tents with pointed frames,
like spears of bone, stand pierced
in the empty lobby, lonely,
waiting;
how the winter wind cuts through it.
As the cold artifacts of the museum
catch the outside glow,
the carnivalesque slaughter brings
laughter to civilization.

Denver’s rain is absent and dry,
the natives of the Arapaho
meditate on the sacred mountain
when the invaders come.
I watch how blood spreads—
past and present—and death favors
their flesh, buried under black moonlight
by fire and sword.
Left with sword marks,
they dye the river bend with blood,
winding like red silk;
now it leaves collections
lying in the museum of darkness.
Their bones cannot be read,
as their residues are covered
under the ash of death.

Inside or out, there is no sweetness—
only the salty taste of blood.
The truth sinks and vanishes;
as for the sleeping city folks,
the moon is clear tonight.

They Came （It was published Cathexis Northwest Press）

Tuol Sleng
like a poisonous flower
exhaling
a piercing venom.

The palm trees swayed
beneath the faltering shadow,
a procession of bones
   

—the dead—
labeled as intellectuals.

They came
like a gust of wind,
They came
like a herd of wild beasts.
They came
slaughter upon slaughter,
cursing Tuol Sleng,
damning its streets and rivers.

They regarded themselves as fanatical idealists,
But never, made the place a paradise.
Passion torched it into a fiery hell.

They came
with frantic lusts.
They came to Cambodia—
its flesh drenched in rouge.

When Tuol Sleng opened,
Moonlight buried people
in a sunken pit of earth.

None to cry those words:
“ They came!”

Yucheng Tao is an international student from China, currently studying songwriting in Los Angeles. His work has been featured in Wild Court (UK), The Lake (UK), Red Ogre Review (UK), Cathexis Northwest Press, and NonBinary Review (which includes an interview). His poems have passed into the semifinalist round of the Winds of Asia Award by Kinsman Quarterly, and many poems and fiction have been published in Yellow Mama, Apocalypse Confidential, Waymark Literary Magazine, Ink Nest, The Arcanist, Synchronized Chaos, Down in the Dirt, Academy of the Heart and Mind, and others.