Poetry: Summer Love by Winshen Liu
It might be nostalgia, it might be the winter world around us, but we’re desperate for this poem of summer by Winshen Liu. In the midst of wherever you may be, let her latest poem sun your head and fill your mouth with the taste of raspberries.
Summer Love
In a dream, I bit into a red
bean bīng and woke next to you, to find
syrup hyphens melting on your thumb.
You taught me to tickle the belly
button of a raspberry to make
its laughter in our mouths taste sweeter.
In a Brazilian hammock slung
like whiskey, we swung the sky into
night, the Loop into le sixième.
Sunned heads swerved when I cantered down Dear-
born, my soles slapping across Great Lakes
streets, with nothing in hand but lilies.
Winshen Liu
Winshen Liu is from Illinois and currently pursuing an MFA at the University of Mississippi. Gordon Square Review was the first to publish her poetry and offered such a supportive editorial mentorship that she continued with the form. Her poems have since appeared or are forthcoming in Baltimore Review, The Malahat Review, RHINO, The Rumpus, and Southeast Review, among others. Find more at winshenliu.com.
