TPCReview Issue 002

Keziah Cho

The yearly visit

In the end it was the rain
did me in   how could it not:
stiffening into a mid-range
midsummer monsoon   deathbed
rise and fall of branches outside
the rain did me in. But what’s it to you?
Not a peep from you till Ching Ming
and then the air is sullen again
forcing steam into these aisles
and choking open magnolias
sickly sweet   heaving out
their scent before my image.
You cross yourself for me   tread
water in your throat and leave
my bitten face to the grey
stinking warmth.   That day
when the rain came you could
go nowhere   lids closed
against these urns     you
listen to the mosquitoes:
      sinking into skeletal dreams
of skin and blood   skimming
      our deep inkpool of sleep
which of us can tell them where
this weather goes   how will these clouds break next?

Keziah Cho, born and raised in Hong Kong, is currently completing a master’s degree in English literature at the University of Cambridge. Her poems can be found on Voice & Verse, Emerge Literary Journal, Pi Magazine, The Foundationalist, and The Crank. When she’s not writing, she’s probably eating bread, baking bread, or thinking about where to get the best bread.