'Boundary' & 'Crow & Warrior', by Yucheng Tao
Boundary
(Previously published in Arts Lounge Magazine)
The world is a boundary,
within the unreachable imagination of mankind,
like mountain peaks,
never arriving before our eyes.
And war is fire,
forcing people into the same boundary,
each becomes an ant,
bound to coexist,
yet the moment one leaves,
isolation deepens.
The crows are the waiters,
they line up after death arrives,
ready to feast upon the corpses.
In that moment,
even the boundary of the food chain collapses,
for humanity,
adrift in the darkness.
Crow & Warrior
The crow flies over
the warrior’s skull
beneath the winter mist—
no sound,
only the crow flies over
the skull in another warrior’s hand.
Yucheng Tao is a Chinese poet based in Los Angeles, currently pursuing a B.A. in Songwriting at the Musicians Institute. His work has appeared in over 30 journals internationally, including Wild Court (King’s College London), NonBinary Review, Apocalypse Confidential, The Arcanist, Red Ogre Review, Cathexis Northwest Press, SHINE: International Poetry, In Parentheses, and more. He was a semifinalist for the Winds of Asia Award. One of his poems recently became a semifinalist in a horror-themed competition hosted by Alien Buddha Press, with final results expected in October 2025. He has also been invited for interviews by several literary magazines.