Chinese Rapunzel
lowers her pinky fingernail,
curvaceously lavender, delicate
as a shell carrying the whispers
of the ocean within its depths.
there is no tower but her body,
and isn’t that worse, anyway,
to be trapped within strips of
silk’”
coda
grab ahold of the extended nail,
my prince, and climb me to
freedom. Perhaps the
summit will offer more than
my walled eyes can see, a
glimpse of the yellow sea
washing out toward
once upon a time.
Rachel Lim is an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia, where she interns at the University of Virginia Press and edits the Arts & Entertainment section of the daily newspaper. Her poetry has appeared at Strong Verse, Suss and Every Day Poets, among others.
IMAGE:Ci Xi, Dowager Empress of China, at the time being the Imperial Concubine Yi.