“Paint Me in the Color of Your Greed” by Ailing Zhou

Paint Me in the Color of Your Greed

You’re so wise, is the sentence from which
his choreography derives
his tongue sticks into my left ear
and calls my heartache chest pain
It’s a settler’s habit
To distort in the name of a new reality
But because I am wise, wiser than he
I know I have no beauty
even when he insists it so
When he calls, my beloved
I know he means to beckon forward
his subject
So he can reach between my legs
and pull out
his bohemian fantasy
he thinks he is in love with my wisdom
but really it is the acuity of pain
something he has never learned that
Enthralls him, his dry mania

A child chasing the sight of a fox on the edges of an urban park
What is a fox to him
sits crushing on my ribcage, slowly

Ailing Zhou

Ailing Zhou is a Chinese-born Singaporean writer who was raised in China, Singapore, and the UK. She is a recent graduate of Duke University, where she received her B.A. in English. This is her first poetry publication, more of her work is forthcoming in Janus Literary.

Photo Credit: Staff