<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><span style="font-size: 23px;">Greensickness</span><div style="font-size: 23px;"><br></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; caret-color: rgb(52, 52, 52); color: rgb(52, 52, 52); font-size: 22.6px;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">My wild grief didn’t know where to end.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Everywhere I looked: a field alive and unburied. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Whole swaths of green swallowed the light. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">All around me, the field was growing. I grew out </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">My hair in every direction. Let the sun freckle my face. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Even in the greenest depths, I crouched </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Towards the light. That summer, everything grew </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">So alive and so alone. A world hushed in green. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Wildest grief grew inside out.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; caret-color: rgb(52, 52, 52); color: rgb(52, 52, 52); font-size: 22.6px;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">I crawled to the field’s edge, bruises blooming </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">In every crevice of my palms. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">I didn’t know I’d reached a shoreline till I felt it </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">There: A salt wind lifted </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">The hair from my neck. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">At the edge of every green lies an ocean. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">When I saw that blue, I knew then: </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">This world will end.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; caret-color: rgb(52, 52, 52); color: rgb(52, 52, 52); font-size: 22.6px;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Grief is not the only geography I know. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Every wound closes. Repair comes with sweetness, </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Come spring. Every empire will fall: </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">I must believe this. I felt it </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Somewhere in the field: my ancestors </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Murmuring Go home, go home—soon, soon. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">No country wants me back anymore and I’m okay.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; caret-color: rgb(52, 52, 52); color: rgb(52, 52, 52); font-size: 22.6px;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">If grief is love with nowhere to go, then </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Oh, I’ve loved so immensely. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">That summer, everything I touched </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Was green. All bruises will fade </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">From green and blue to skin. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Let me grow through this green </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">And not drown in it. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Let me be lawless and beloved, </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ungovernable and unafraid. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Let me be brave enough to live here. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Let me be precise in my actions. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Let me feel hurt. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">I know I can heal. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Let me try again—again and again.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; caret-color: rgb(52, 52, 52); color: rgb(52, 52, 52); font-size: 22.6px;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; caret-color: rgb(52, 52, 52); color: rgb(52, 52, 52); font-size: 22.6px;"><span class="long line" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>- Laurel Chen</p></div></div></body></html>