Kara Kai Wang
My China Doll
I find her on a clear
June night
commanding bees
with her black hair,
almond knees.
Her breasts
are child moons,
slant with eyes
and half a century
of unnamed wounds.
Around her a riverbed
pummeled by gardenia,
imprints of a woman
self-taught
against man. I am envious
of her solitude
the open threat
of its waters.
Slipping out of my dress
I enter, red myth
pools between our thighs,
an invitation
I offered once
and never again.
Kara Kai Wang is a Chinese-American poet living in San Francisco. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in TriQuarterly, Indiana Review, Four Way Review, Best New Poets, The Asian American Literary Review, and elsewhere. She is a graduate of University of Oregon’s MFA program and is currently a medical student at UCSF.
