"Dialogue Between Lady Macbeth and Gertrude, On Marriage" by Vanessa Niu

Dialogue Between Lady Macbeth and Gertrude, On Marriage

G: the sun, an egg yolk cracked on the horizon.
apricot preservative. tin of night desecrated into
a dirty blond skyline. the space between the
eyelids, like scrapyards before dawn, a space
dedicated to preservation, between dark and birth.

M: when we dedicate something to preservation, it is
already half-dead, eyes as glazed as white marbles,
fine china with a chip in its side, the surrounding air
permeated with silence thick as morning smog.
becoming oceanic cosmic fluorescent machinery.

G: then the lovers, cradled in something half-dead,
who cross the street enthroned in the red light. song
dribbling through clenched teeth. stumbling. the
mother wound, a birthmark. color blossoms, blood
wine-dark over the carpet receiving, annunciating.

M: then thirst. the sepulcher fills like a fish tank and
water becomes air. an arachnid fear, an underwater
blindness and a tongue, arms reaching out to
relearn the feeling of danger. glistening cement
red to green, blue to black, lust to greed to anger.

G: but wherefore does the lovers’ embrace arrive whilst
waiting at the laundromat? the place of impermanence
and of cycles never-ending. the communal machine,
our porcelain tomb? the shadow of domesticity? of
the eagle song slowly losing momentum, music box.

M: think, lover, of your cycling. of the mother’s, preemptive.
yours. and the child’s? the question is whether the burden
of a life that is not yours can fit in a satchel and be slung
over a back worn by carrying its own bones. life gathered
in a thing half-dead, shelled and tied, bouquet — given.

(Silence from Gertrude. A slow percussion can be heard from afar.)

vanessa niu

Vanessa Y. Niu is a second-generation Chinese-American poet and classical singer who lives in New York City. She has written text for the modern composition scene at Juilliard and Interlochen and can be found at the opera house, a slam-poetry session, or attending open physics lectures when not writing.

Headshot: Anna Niu

Photo Credit: Staff