A Poem On The Nature of Things

By Ashish Kumar Singh

JiaHao Peng - Santa Monica Pier Pigeon Man (2018), Photograph
Image description: An individual sits on a bench with his back turned towards the camera. He tilts his head downwards. He wears a baseball hat, under which tufts of white hair are visible. Pigeons perch on his head, his shoulders, the bench, and the blue railing in front of him. In the background are the sea, which is dotted with swimmers, and houses on the shoreline.

A Poem On The Nature Of Things

It is only for safety
that birds rush to the sky, 

leaving the arms of a tree
but where would we go

if land is what haunts us.
According to biology,

every animal survives
by fleeing the scene of danger

but all I ever seem to do
is to persevere, try to outlive

the violence itself. Once,
there was a man

who followed me into the toilet,
made the yellow tiles kiss

my knees and like a rat
already caught between

the claws of some street dog,
I waited for the burden

of the day to leave his body.
He said every action of love

was a fist thrown against the body,
every kiss a bite on the skin

and that gentleness was a sign
of its leaving. I remember

the first time I said
I love you to a boy,

his knuckles bruised my jaws
purple. But this cannot

be the only form of love
because ma always says

something different, something
which involves lightness,

something like the touch of first
snow. I am a devoted son

so I believe her and she proves
herself right by saying

that when birds sing in the morning,
they do not all sing

the same song.

JiaHao Peng - Dead Hawk (2020), Photograph
Image description: The body of a bird is nestled in a dent in the ground, with its head placed next to a rock. Patches of green leaves grow around it. The bird’s eyes are closed, and its wings are tucked next to its body. 

JiaHao Peng - Tadpole (2023), Photograph
Image description: A human hand is half-submerged in a body of shallow water. Its palm is open. The palm holds a small amount of water, in which there is a single tadpole. Ripples are visible on the water surface. Rocks and pebbles are visible under the water surface. 

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JiaHao Peng - LA Landscape (2022), Photograph
Image description: A variety of plants grow on sloped ground. Patches of soil and pieces of rocks are visible. Bare tree branches are tangled among the plants.

Me Looking At Him. 

JiaHao Peng - Newport Beach Tide Pool (2021), Photograph
Image description: Rocks are half-submerged in seawater. Green plants and algae cover their surfaces. In the background, the horizon is glowing with a faint light. 

After Jenna Gribbon’s 2018 painting “Me Looking At Her Looking At Me”

In the distance, birds sing some song
they must have picked from another country
and because I am embarrassed to get
caught looking at his face, I look
at his legs instead. In the early morning light,
his brown skin looks like polished wood,
made smooth with the touch of many hands.
I feel envious and want to hold him
like a father would his child, like a mouth
this language. The first time we met, we met
via an app because it felt safer,
because our desires need not to be said
in person, because it was already spelled
quick fuck beneath pictures of our faceless bodies.
We didn’t even bother with lights, groped
in darkness like animals in hedges and it was
only after a week when we met again,
that I took his face in the dimness of a sun
already extinguished. Now, for reasons
I cannot explain, like a devotee puzzled
at finding his plea returned, I shift
to look at his face to find him looking at me.

JiaHao Peng - The Huntington Garden (2022), Photograph
Image description: Rays of bright light shine in from a blurred, dark-green background. Specks of dust are visible, suspended in the rays of light. 

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Ashish Kumar Singh (he/him) is a queer poet from India with a Master’s degree in English Literature. His works have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Passages North, Chestnut Review, Fourteen Poems, Foglifter Press, Banshee, and elsewhere. Currently, he serves as an editorial assistant at Visual Verse and reads poetry submissions for ANMLY.

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JiaHao Peng was born and raised in Wenling, China, and attended school in Columbus, Ohio. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles. A visual artist and plant enthusiast with experience in the art industry, he founded the creative studio Ten Ten Photosynthesis, which offers comprehensive services that include ornamental plants, floral arrangements, plant installations, and photography.

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