Aiden Heung

Twyckenham Notes
Issue Sixteen
Summer 2023

Ode to a Mountain

When I was small the world was big
beyond your rocky slopes. I did not ask
for much; I did not need

to outgrow your sunburnt afternoons,
or frosty mornings before the red
of day doused your cloud girth,

coaxing roosters to the roof, men
to the field. Your sundial shadow,
thrown onto hills that, like waves,

galloped into a higher sky, until rain
brought it down to earth, to the eyes
of farmers who feared for harvest.

You held the fallen sky in your palms
and returned it to the blue.
But there were always brave men,

who drove in during raging seasons;
trucks full of goods that you could not
provide: batteries, gas, second-hand

televisions and letters from a city.
At your foot they stopped and rested
the night. It was good to end

a day like this— 
Stars that nested on your shoulder
would watch in silence, then burn out

among a few lamps of home.

AIDEN HEUNG (He/They) is a Chinese poet born in a Tibetan Autonomous Town, currently living as a traveling coating salesman. If he is not on the road selling water-repellent solutions, you can always find him writing poems in one of the Costa Cafes in Shanghai. His poems written in English have appeared in The Australian Poetry Journal, The Missouri Review, Atlanta Review, Parentheses, Crazyhorse, Black Warrior Review among other places. He can be found on Twitter @aidenheung.

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