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Published: Fri Jul 1 2005
Eva Lundsager, Were now like (detail), 2021, oil on canvas
Longing for a sense of history

Hiroko, this is a newsflash
on wavelengths

that are nothing like Tokyo’s:
there is a shortage of snow, and gravity

remains an enigma. All that talk
over technology—tired tracks of light

bending and folding up
like clockwork and bass clefs.

Every week, I concede a point
of inflection. Remember

when they used to say
karaoke? Now stars are shrinking

past the event horizon; the escape
speed of phonemes is astonishing.

You know how Mercury charts
an eccentric orbit—there are no stop signs

on these highways; not enough
vinegar in the rice.

Lynette Ng’s poems have appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, AGNI, Claw & Blossom, 86 Logic, and elsewhere. Originally from Malaysia, she now lives near Boston. (updated 4/2022)

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