Paris is for Lovers by Grace Li

this is what too much heat does to the body:
grandfathers push grocery carts into the ocean
God on board, Vishnu among the vegetables
……….greased-up stars implode in the dailies and
when Venus grows all hot and bothered
she’ll plant another dead palm in a sinkhole.
scholars wade through their landfills of libraries
in glacial rooms, people trade sweat with sweat
as the city slides on, the icebergs bobbing
in our drinks: today the air is rare
……….and quiet and the news drives by slowly
the gridlock long enough to make love in.
if I am to die, let me die by a boulevard
on a river: by the vapors, the gases, by you.

Grace Li is a student in the MFA Program in Poetry at San Diego State University. She received a B.A. in English, summa cum laude, from UCLA. Her work has been published in Red Wheelbarrow and she was a finalist for the Jane Underwood Poetry Prize.