Crossing the Stream — by Dr. Yvonne Wong, Division of Arts and Languages

Keywords: Poetry, changes, chances, action, inaction

Accepted: June 11, 2026; Online first: June 17, 2026; Published: July 13, 2026 (TBC)

Mountains, with their shoulders
Peaked, across the stream, soaked
In the marsh of ink,
Still.

Air is all that’s floating
flickering squeezing smashing.
The feet stand still, the breaths sound still.
The eyes, still stale in a stillness,
Anchoring, still a whimper
locked by the still moonlight sealed
like, or through, a watermark
that can, still perhaps, chisel and tilt the ground.

The feet stand still, the breaths sound still.
The wind fingers, the pines purr.
A drop of the marshy green,
falls.