SWWIM sustains and celebrates women poets by connecting creatives across generations and by curating a living archive of contemporary poetry, while solidifying Miami as a nexus for the literary arts.
A photo on my cellphone—a mother holding her newborn baby whose head is wrapped in gauze. The grandmother lies on a cot staring at them. The gloomy basement, peeling walls. They seem to hear sirens, shelling, explosions outside.
Another photo—women hold guns, waiting to be called to the battlefield. One raises her head, I tremble at her young face. I see no end to the deep end.
In the chat groups from my motherland, my compatriots fight online—some burn with anger, some spill words as knives, some excuse the present by retelling the past, and some prepare a toast. Suffocated, I drink a glass of sparkling cider, drive to Horn Pond.
Winter and spring battle out here— Some parts of the pond are still frozen, shining like frosted glass. Some crack to the blue abyss. Some flow water with imprinted white clouds.
The swan pair swim to shore, open their mouths with hissing squeaks. I don't know if we are friends or foes, but repeated encounters have formed a ritual.
Xiaoly Li is a poet and photographer in Massachusetts. She is a 2022 recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship Grant in Poetry. Her poetry has appeared in Spillway, American Journal of Poetry, PANK, Atlanta Review, Chautauqua, Rhino, Cold Mountain Review, J Journal, and elsewhere; her work has been featured on Verse Daily and in several anthologies. Her photography has been shown and sold in galleries in Boston.
