What is not eco-mystery with victory?
                        Echo.       History.

When all the landscapes have an open casket,
For the sake of lunar caution, will you close all of your meadows?
                        Echo.       No.

When the whales sing sad lullabies with their
Lyrical carcasses on the polluted beach, where will we find you, Witch?
                        Echo.       Ditch.  

After drowning all the ducks in our antibodies
Who will become earth’s new foie gras?
                        Echo.       Grass.

Tomorrow sheep will lose their bonnets and husbands,
What will earth’s new pastoral bride say?
                        Echo.       Decay.

If your hormone is a drone and your gender an iPhone,
Is the dishwasher the ultimate master or an inevitable disaster?
                        Echo.       Disaster.

If the sun is free to teach someone how to bleach,
What will swim straight into a radiator’s windows?
                        Echo.       Minnows.

The tree’s sleeves interweave + recede,
Who can conceive while being deceived?
                        Echo.       Leaves.

VI KHI NAO is the author of four poetry collections: Human Tetris (11:11 Press, 2019) Sheep Machine (Black Sun Lit, 2018), Umbilical Hospital (Press 1913, 2017), The Old Philosopher (winner of the Nightboat Prize for 2014), & of the short stories collection, A Brief Alphabet of Torture (winner of the 2016 FC2’s Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize), the novel, Fish in Exile (Coffee House Press, 2016). Her work includes poetry, fiction, film and cross-genre collaboration. She was the Fall 2019 fellow at the Black Mountain Institute. vikhinao.com

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