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swaying red lanterns by D.A. Xiaolin Spires

Posted on February 27, 2019 by publisher in
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Narrated by Dafydd McKimm

swaying red lanterns by D.A. Xiaolin Spires

Illustration by Sue Babcock

breezes pick up and the soft sound of rubbing paper,
reminds tingting of the scratchy way her ah-ma
            folds paper cranes 
                        when she’s lonely 

globes dangle
            in the street against the night sky,
                        plunging the darkness
            with bioluminescence

she fishes out a sweet, sticky dumpling from her soup,
            it’s warm and thick going down
                        as soothing as 
                                    hot fudge on a cold sundae
                        made of black sesame paste

lantern riddles written on thin paper sleeves
            challenge the children next to her,
                        happily they shout out answers
                                    only one of them is correct

tingting’s teacher walks on tippy-toes,
            smiles with mascara eyes
                        in her hands, a bright red lantern
                                    pear-shaped and dotted
                        with plum blossoms

tassels trace phantom calligraphy in the wind,
they scrawl into the night
            her unsaid aspirations
                        the substance that underlies
            all her loftiest dreams

 

BIO: D.A. Xiaolin Spires steps into portals and reappears in sites such as Hawai’i, NY, various parts of Asia and elsewhere, with her keyboard appendage attached. Besides Liquid Imagination, her work appears or is forthcoming in publications such as Clarkesworld, Analog, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, Nature, Terraform, Grievous Angel, Fireside, Galaxy’s Edge, StarShipSofa, Andromeda Spaceways (Year’s Best Issue), Factor Four, Diabolical Plots, Pantheon, Outlook Springs, ROBOT DINOSAURS, Mithila Review, LONTAR, Reckoning, Issues in Earth Science, Liminality, Star*Line, Polu Texni, Argot, Eye to the Telescope, Little Blue Marble, Story Seed Vault, and anthologies of the strange and beautiful: Ride the Star Wind, Sharp and Sugar Tooth, Future Visions, Deep Signal, Battling in All Her Finery, and Broad Knowledge. She can be found on her website daxiaolinspires.wordpress.com and on Twitter @spireswriter.

NARRATOR BIO: Dafydd McKimm is a British speculative fiction writer who now lives in Taipei, Taiwan. He tweets occasionally @Dafyddmckimm.

Our next issue will be published on June 1, 2021.
Poetry and Story submissions are now open and will close in mid-April, 2021.

Liquid Imagination

Issue 40 February 2019

Stories

When the Silvershade Blooms by Deborah L. Davitt

A Tune Played Coldly by A.L. Sirois

Every Day is a Wake for Yesterday by Chris Lee Jones

Cron is the Clock-Daemon by Bill Suboski

Shadow and Flame by J.B. Toner

Annalise by David Waid

Disjoined by Neptune’s Might by Valerie Lute

Poems

Rain Dream by Seth Jani

Part of Façade of Gage Building by F. J. Bergmann

The Mask by Anna Cates

Time Consuming by Ashley B. Davis

Mathematics by Les Wicks

swaying red lanterns by D.A. Xiaolin Spires

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