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Torso of Air

By Ocean Vuong

Suppose you do change your life.
& the body is more than

a portion of night––sealed
with bruises. Suppose you woke

& found your shadow replaced
by a black wolf. The boy, beautiful

& gone. So you take the knife to the wall
instead. You carve & carve

until a coin of light appears
& you get to look in, at last,

on happiness. The eye
staring back from the other side––

waiting.

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A note from the editor:

Ocean Vuong was born on this day in 1988.

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