To the Tune of a Stranger in Flames

Karen An-hwei Lee

A tulip dress is the sea in your closet.

Say if in another reality you

doused yourself in gasoline,

setting the world on fire in front of you?

Even the birds of prey

fled to another corner of the universe

by changing into constellations —

not one those birds sang. A bronze phoenix

scaled in boldness —

this immolated body rises from ash

to the tune of a lovely stranger in flames.

A tulip dress is the sea in your closet.