Fork prints in copper

By: Georgia San Li

reveal patterns of fossilized flowers mixed with

mud-cracked seeds, pebbling rocks

of brown barley, red beans, smashed

leaving imprints against char-riddled

rice, scraped and singed at the bottom of her

copper pan, panning gold, but la la

there is nothing, nothing

burning bright in the cruel bubbling rivers of

indelible summer heat, she slurps before

she sets the table, and knows not what to call this

American alien mixture of no lilacs, no

tubers, with no

redemption in their eyes

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Georgia San Li is at work on a novel, poetry and other writings. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in venues such as Litro Magazine, Eclectica, selected for the final round of the 2022 Oxford Poetry Prize, and shortlisted for the New Millenium Writing Awards. She has worked in cities including London, Tunis, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Paris, Boston, Wilhelmshaven and Tokyo. She is American, born in the Midwest, and currently lives in New England.