Ruoyu Wang

Theories of Light

“As Mercury prepares to launch into flight, Cupid reaches desperately to contain him. Their bodies twist with buoyancy and barely suspended momentum, defying the heft we associate with bronze,” —The Met, on Mercury and Cupid by Franceso Fanelli.

The season broods, translates flesh
into fever. We crush 

hyacinths by a spoiled field,
thumb their purple skirts split

open. Behind us, dawn breaks

like a promise. & we return
before our altar; your face is sullen,

riverside. The trumpet tips into the back
of your throat like every scene drawn

lyrical before: silence
an omission, your limbs splayed

out like a bird. You waste no time.
Play messenger and sing

this ancient scripture of loss. Mercury,
I can’t believe in us.

In neither light nor its descent

but somewhere —we are
beautiful with a name

for this fervor. This quiet
cruelty. Twisting

towards the heaven we think
we still know.

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Ruoyu Wang (王若雨) is a young writer from Washington state. Their poetry appears or is forthcoming in National Poetry Quarterly, Interstellar Lit and antinarrative zine, among others. You can find them listening to beabadoobee and Mitski or @wangwrites_ on Twitter.