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PAROUSIA I<br />
Karen An-Hwei Lee<br />
Red butterfly knots, macram :<br />
May I share what I see?<br />
Light years and local suns,<br />
truth or disaster in medias res.<br />
Nations spend more on perfume<br />
than famine, stone-ground<br />
until aroma emerges, hunger.<br />
Boys squat on stones, weep.<br />
Our universe is not infinite:<br />
boundaries exist. We await<br />
a translation as parousia<br />
wraps the sky around our heads,<br />
suede or new skin. The cosmos<br />
is fish paper and a house dress,<br />
insect’s eggs in my linen closet.<br />
Listen for stirring upstairs.<br />
Karen An-hwei Lee is the author of Phyla of Joy (Tupelo Press, 2012), Ardor<br />
(Tupelo Press, 2008), In Medias Res (Sarabande Books, 2004), and a chapbook,<br />
God’s One Hundred Promises (Swan Scythe Press, 2002). Her books have been<br />
honored by the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America<br />
(chosen by Cole Swensen) and the Kathryn A. Morton Prize for Poetry (selected by<br />
Heather McHugh). The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, she<br />
chairs the English department at a faith-based college in southern California, where<br />
she is also a novice harpist.<br />
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