kisslock
Vicky Quan
Inside my fingers there is a kisslock
quietly entwined by the arteries and veins
only unlocked at the moment
when my hands open the lid of a piano
releasing the bounded dancers
emitting hundreds of butterflies
devoting numberless kisses
to the floating world of black and white
Everywhere a kiss is faded
springs up a golden garden of tulips and zinnia
between the plain and mountains
beneath the valley of Milky Way
nothing could cease the blooming
no matter what trauma or joy
hidden in the melody a choir softly chants
the deadweight love
Vicky Quan is in the Rutgers class of 2026. Vicky writes, “Thanks to my professor, Joanna Fuhrman, my writing skills have been enhanced. The poems and stories she assigned in class also broadened my horizons and set my mind working. I love reading poems and novels with dreamy and antique settings. Sometimes curling up in a cloakroom closet or sitting on the sill of the bay window with curtains drawn inspires my writing and my own creative pieces.”
Vicky wrote this poem in a course taught by Joanna Fuhrman, who selected it for inclusion in WHR.