The Third Shore · Literary work
Low-Tide Moments
By Shen Yan
Five poems of receipts, laundry, plastic chairs, medicine, and unanswered calls.
I. Receipt
A supermarket receipt went through the wash.
Eggs became a patch of grey.
Milk remained.
The total cannot be read.
I press it into a book
as if holding there
a dinner that did not happen.
II. Washing Machine
The washing machine stops at seven minutes.
Shirts, socks, a white towel
turn into one knot.
I do not press Continue.
I stand beside it
and listen to it say nothing.
III. Plastic Chair
The red chair downstairs
is missing a leg.
Someone props it on a brick.
It still faces the road
and watches different people
put the same bag of rubbish
beside the bin each day.
IV. Pillbox
Monday: empty.
Tuesday: empty.
Wednesday: one blue pill.
It belongs to no illness.
Only last night
the light was
too bright.
V. Missed Call
The phone trembles once.
The screen goes dark again.
I do not call back.
Outside, someone drags an iron gate.
For a short time
the entire building
thinks it is awake.