Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday

Let Me Say I Am Fuchsia

Did you say we were royal once
but not allowed to claim this heritage?
Though pigs can be considered to have as much
everything to do with hierarchy
what rotten dumb luck
coming second place to hogs.

Then let me say I am fuchsia
an azalea fever dream burning down
the countryside of your mind, at least let me
claim exile from the mother kingdom.
You were twelve when you had to leave it.
Grief is genetic.

Now you are gone and when I think
to look for you I look to the sky
where clouds offer abstract painterly possibilities
if I squint just right I may catch a wisp
of your nose, a gesture of forehead.

But if I don’t see you there
I will listen for you in the trees.

Jiwon Choi is a poet, early childhood teacher, and urban gardener.  She is the author of three poetry collections.  Her most recent book, A Temporary Dwelling, was published by Spuyten Duyvil last year.  She started her Brooklyn community garden’s first poetry reading series, Poets Read in the Garden, to support local writers during the early Covid years.  She is an editor at Hanging Loose Press.

Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx