Vulnerability, Flowering by Addie Tsai

Vulnerability, Flowering

by Addie Tsai

hush · issue 5

A poem titled Vulnerability, Flowering by Addie Tsai. Text reads: I've always seen myself a creature / of vulnerability, heart open but protected, / encased in a coat of glass / This morning I drove shrouded by green, staring through the clouds. / It reminded me of that time I couldn't take enough photos of the sky. / What was it I wanted from its depths? What in the earth did I fear? / When I fell into you / you became sunlight, softening / exposing every pore / When you fell away / all I could see was darkness / shapes eroded overnight / [indented] All my loves congratulated me, but all I could see were the specs of my tears. / [indented] The poems squeezing through the spaces between my ribs, spilling out of skin. / [indented] My emotional life yet another body demanding to be acknowledged. / my heart suddenly a blackeyed Susan beneath / cement, cracked open / Then I realized, it always hurts to push past the earth. / A flower fights against the air in order to grow. / As I drove, I wept, holding my bodies—the once and the soon. / I know what / we aim to / do now / I can't / wait to / see who / we end / up A vertical film photograph of a dramatic sky by Addie Tsai. Light blue sky occupies the left third of the frame; a large dark storm cloud formation dominates the right half, with bright white light breaking through from the lower left where the sun is partially obscured. A vertical film photograph of a dramatic sky by Addie Tsai. The frame is almost entirely filled with a large formation of storm clouds in deep contrast—dark centers surrounded by bright white edges—with gaps of brilliant light breaking through. Faint streetlamp silhouettes are visible at the bottom corners.

Addie Tsai

Addie Tsai (any/all) is a queer nonbinary artist and writer of color who teaches creative writing at William & Mary. They also teach in Goddard College's MFA Program in Interdisciplinary Arts and Regis University’s Mile High MFA Program in Creative Writing. Addie collaborated with Dominic Walsh Dance Theater on Victor Frankenstein and Camille Claudel, among others. They earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College and a Ph.D. in Dance from Texas Woman’s University. Addie is the author of Dear Twin and Unwieldy Creatures. She is the Fiction co-Editor and Editor of Features & Reviews at Anomaly, contributing writer at Spectrum South, and Founding Editor & Editor in Chief at just femme & dandy.