By Cindy Wang Shuran, aged 15

The light perch’d
On the fringe
Of a window-sash
Upon the curtain they alight

Glide down
Flop’d on to a wooden ground

Glazed slightly
—the way they came.

Casting shadow,

And left some.

Look’d, then looked back:

Shadow had gone,

Pulled its soul

—the way they came

They perch’d
On bricks;
Every concrete.
Thus kindergarten
was university.

Apartments became cells,

Court a giant plate,

Rooftops the mountain

Where, one is not given divine rights

to flee, like them.
Daren’t not walk among, like them

—For the departed had been so,

And their soul of light.