To Be Elsewhere by Hsia Yü

Hsia Yü

To Be Elsewhere by Hsia Yü

T.

You said you didn’t want to risk it; you wanted to protect that life. I don’t know which hurts more: that you would never take the leap for me or that I am not part of what you desire to keep safe. Having loved you: oh, what of it, then.

To Be Elsewhere

Hsia Yü

We met in a coastal village

spent a lovely night without leaving an address

going separate ways. Three years later

we meet again by coincidence.

The whole

three years spun a novel

we abandoned:

They fail to recognize themselves

as though meeting in another story

for an encounter.

One asks: Who are you, so cold and weary

The other says: I only know a thread is loose on my sweater

The more you pull it, the more it lengthens

until I completely vanish.

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