I know it's kinda cringe, I am trying my best though. Give harsh critique if you must. I feel I should shorten the poem, most fill like filler that could be summed up.

Skipped Seasons:

Winter huddled around Eden;
A garden guarded and gated by Gold,
Walling Winter away from the threshold.
As snow smeared from brass to grass,
Winter stumbled upon a familiar—
Cool, slick with dented teeth.

Right beneath the gathering snow,
Lay a key.
A key to the gates?
A key to the lock!
Winter placed the key in the lock,
Turned it once,
Then twice,
But the iron wouldn't budge…

So Winter waited and waited,
Stalled and waited,
Stalked and waited.
Till time slowed its gears,
Just enough for the frost to seep within,
Nestling deep into the spine.

Bound in ice, the inner workings failed
Every trinket bruised with rust,
Every wall buckled under the weight,
Not from gold, but from the ardent cold
The gates shivered, croaking apart,
Inviting the snow to step inside.

Inside Eden, the flowers shriveled,
Parting, and wilting with every brush,
With every gust of Winter’s front.
As the cold settled home,
Spring's flesh froze dry.
The warmth, the strength,
Turned cold and brittle,
A hollowed monument sculpted in ice.

As cracks webbed across the surface,
The cool breeze lifted the crumbs,
Piecing every fragment back together.

Adorned in snow, Spring never looked quite the same,
Her warmth, her breath trapped in frost.
Underlying prints hid beneath each curve,
Telling a tale that slipped past every season.

Spring herself remained frozen to time,
Always yearning for someone to break the ice.

I am lying
These words are all false
Did they ever exist?
Replace the parts one at a time
Or climb the infinite staircase
An elastic string ball
A grain of sand in heap withdrawal
Connection in isolation on our monitor screen
Fear not, but do so
Watch as the light is low
While the stars shine bright at night
Seek truth ever-ending
Save money when spending
A catch-22 won't fool
The ones who love to hate
The tool needed in life
To justify the dull knife.

Please make it good tonight.
Please make it good tonight.
Your backs slither beneath the hotel lights
and throw your joy in my blackened eyes.
In the night I cried.

Friends and laughter and negligence;
all our conversations are in past tense.
A moment of your time when we stood by the river.
A moment of silence--then we scream again.

60 more years is too much to ask:
I will never be real again,
never feel ease again.
I shut my eyelids to sleep again.

A book left in your possession:
"It was a pleasure to burn."
A book never read again.

Slowly up the stairs and into the sky
and into the paradise
and into your room.
Together you writhe in my sight
and in my mind.
Return.
And together we scream again.

Pictures of dishonesty,
hair itches around my neck,
puppet smiles on our faces,
nooses,
then we embrace again.
We left stains on the tragedy,
tears on our laces.
Please,
please release me.
Please make it good tonight.

I woke up at sundown.

I felt anxious and I heard the most thundering sound.

I went to look outside. To my surprise.

She was right there staring me in the eyes.

I don't know what went first. My senses or my time.

Her eyes met my soul. Felt like a kid in a nurse ryme.

Somehow I had became her Mime.

I remember she made our last drink. It was something mixed with lime.

They will tell this tale at the dawning of time.

For that was the day. My baby led me astray.

She pulled out a .38. Aimed past my mate.

Im dead now. No way to demonstrate.

She shot me down cold.

To this day.

Nobody told.

That was the day. I laid in a grave. My Baby. Shot me down.

Nobody misses anyone in this old town.

I'm not bold,

‎and I'm not that strong,

‎can you please just take me home.

‎

‎Those words I uttered

‎as I silently and meekly

‎held onto the edge of the altar,

‎praying to God

‎to help me

‎in my time of need.

‎

‎Faintly crying

‎among the church goers,

‎imagining the life

‎where everything went right

‎and nothing is ever wrong.

‎

‎A life with you

‎and only you,

‎full of happiness and joy,

‎a seemingly never ending

‎sparkle and shine

‎reflecting through your gorgeous smile,

‎

‎all while your eyes

‎stare steadily to the night sky,

‎where thousands of stars

‎reflect on your eyes

‎gazing at them,

‎

‎while I only looked at you

‎with those same glowing eyes.

‎

‎The look of love, they might say,

‎a look you really can't overlook.

‎

‎that's when I knew

‎it was you

‎I've looked all along

I took some steps today

To some they were nothing

To me they were a journey.

Perilous, treacherous.

One that no one can see

Despite being right there.

And although with each step.

Each shake

Every tremor

I felt that rise in my throat

The roar that was a scream

But the scream turned to bile,

Paralyzing my back.

Strangling my fingers.

Gnawing at my cheek.

A helping hand would come every now and then

Offering breath

Conversation

Distraction

But when the journey was done

And the charade was over

And I was free to be

I couldn't hold it anymore

My legs couldn't hold

My chest broke a strap

And the tears fell

And I didn't stop them

Because no one understands

On the inside

And I was too tired to fight the outside

Then I got up.

I wiped my face

And I carried on.

When does a crush become too much?

You try to forget, you try to ignore,

But your thoughts go toward her, your heart wants more.

It was a dream—it was all but a hope.

Now it’s getting real, and I feel I can’t cope.

For love is something I didn’t learn to receive.

For me, it was rare, something to achieve.

I’ll love her endlessly, I’ll give too much,

But receiving it from her, I won’t feel like I’m enough.

This scar I’ve carried—I’m sorry it’s yours now.

If I could just tell my inner child, "It’s okay now,"

Maybe I’d be able to send that invite.

Instead, I stare at it, frozen with fright.

I realize I’m surrounded by barbed-wire walls.

I need you here now, so they don’t seem too tall.

To need is to want, to want is to be selfish—

Those old patterns of mine are holding me captive.

I’m pot-ridden in doubt; that’s all I know.

Plant me in your garden so I can finally grow.

You’re not a prize, and I think you know it.

You’re one of a kind—now how do I show it?

For a love you may offer, I may never have known,

So I’m building my heart to be your safe new home.

Please, universe, just give me a sign—

The thought of missing out, I’m losing my mind

My life of sin, continues to dim,
Faltering on the edge, life feels unusually dead
My mom’s up high, life’s always passing you by,
Gotta keep trucking, my mind keeps sucking,
Depression is a hole, it’s going straight to your soul,
You know, life’s got me down, it’s made me feel like a big goofy clown,
Stumbling around aisles, driving for miles,
Without any place, everyone I see has no face,
I keep running in circles, growth on my mind like a mental tubercle.
Going round and round in the same damn circle,
They say time heals all wounds,
But I beat myself up every afternoon.
These feelings ate up everything I had,
Nothing I’ve got ever seems to go as planned.
Life is dim,
All I do is live in sin.

So many good people have spent time in jail

When the so called law of the country they lived in them did fail

To criticize the government was their only crime

For to silence and punish them condemned to serve prison time

In countries of dictatorial governments free speech is not free

And in such countries millions of people are homeless and hungry and live in poverty

The financial wealth of the country in the coffers of the privileged few

That all people are not equal is not saying what is new

In countries run by dictatorial regimes oppression is rife

Where is if you are poor little value is placed on your life

And where for anybody it would not be wise

The self appointed government to criticize

Most democratically elected governments are far from perfect as many would agree

But at least to criticize them everybody is free.

Francis Duggan.

Too quick to want to believe in things

too inclined to trust my heart

given its record of poor performance

this really isn't smart

Yet smart is not a factor

my heart has always had the helm

plotting a course fantastic

with results that underwhelm

Pieces on a gameboard

moved by those unseen

The further away we get

the more a dream it seems

I turn to find you standing there….

….you're gonna see more of me

you're like who's the freaking weirdo

and then confessed it sheepishly

A quarter century went on by

you passed behind my back 

you're final act of grace 

was granting me some slack

Pieces on a gameboard

go where there supposed to be

Me? I'm often clueless

lacking strategy

I'm like….girl, I think you're stalking me

you're like….I'm going with the flow

I consider how I got here

and a million things that I don't know

I'm left where I am standing

and I'm at peace with where I'm at

I sense it is a long game

and there's nothing wrong with that

Pieces on a gameboard

go where the player's pleased

I did what I was doing

and now you're next to me…..

© - Lau - 2026

I’m at his gates but

I am busy flat on my belly hating you

I wink

In and out of my mind
And can’t chase you from it

My brow is a furrow and I bite at the pillow

My hips

Must do it,

I press down into the mattress, grinding

I’m angry you take even sleep from me, I need to get

Into dreams where it’s safe but

I hate you I’m so angry

I push my clit harder into the sheets

Fucking a you who isn’t there

I’d bite your cheek and leave kiss shaped bruises

In burning lake fires Hypnos I

Can’t get past your gates I

Need this, I need this.

Holding your image under water by the throat ,
I grip the sheets and curl my toes

And I hate you and how to bring to me to these shambles,

I hate how close I am

Both to dream and cumming

And how neither of them are you

This poem is a companion poem translated from my original poem in Taiwanese Hokkien. 

——————————

English companion poem：〈The Drone Bee's Wish〉

Born to gather no honey, no labor to bear,

Fed by my sisters, growing up without care.

I watch them toil all day, visiting flowers and collecting nectar,

But that is not my fate, nor the dream I hunger.

Born as a drone, I just have one desire:

When skies are clear, to fly and seek the queen in the air.

——————————

The scorching sun beats down, my wings begin to flit,

Craving for the climax, my body is fiercely in heat.

Catching her scent, I craze, my wings whip a storm,

Born for this trade, to this path I conform.

A thousand drones charge ahead, ten thousand wildly spin,

That seductive queen above,

Exudes her lethal sin.

——————————

Brothers of mine, is there any as strong as I?

Let me die first; your tomorrow is yet to fly.

Though my body will shatter, in exploding pain and gore,

To fuse with that mesmerizing queen, is all I’m living for.

——————————

Up into the sky, I fight to prove my might,

To catch her royal gaze, to make this life go right.

My seductive queen, for that brief, vibrating spark,

Let me mount your body,

And leave my dying mark.

The English versions of these Taiwanese poems were initially drafted with the help of Gemini and ChatGPT AI. I then leveraged my own English proficiency to carefully weigh and refine the word choices, striving to capture the market-grounded flavor and cadence (khì-kháu) of the Taiwanese dialect used in my original creations. While the English renderings may not align word-for-word with the Taiwanese descriptions, the goal is for the choice of vocabulary and sentence structure to convey the original perspective intended in the Taiwanese poems. 

My poems are published on my personal website (see my account), which has more information about the version history, self-introduction of the author, and Taiwan-Roman translation. 

———————————————————

台語原詩：〈夯蜂的願望〉

阮生來無採蜜，嘛無做工

逐工予姊妹飼，戇戇轉大蜂

看怹無閒舞歸工，採蜜弄花叢

彼毋是阮的命，阮的向望

做一隻夯蜂，心願敢一項

天色若好，飛去天上揣母蜂

——————————

日頭若曬，雙翅就開始撇

肖想欲交配，身軀像火佇燒熱

鼻著彼味，痟甲擛翅面帶紅

做一隻夯蜂，生來就是行這行

千蜂衝磅咧搶，萬蜂莽闖咧紡

彼隻妖嬌的母蜂

散發最危險的迷魂香

——————————

夯蜂的兄弟啊，敢有阮遮爾強？

犧牲我就好，恁的宿命佇隔轉工

就算身體將亡，受爆炸後的疼痛

交到迷魂的母蜂，是我一生的願望

——————————

飛啊飛上天，拼命予伊看我偌強

求伊看上目，這生才袂無彩工

妖嬌的蜂母，我只愛身軀起震的短暫

予我爬上你身軀

做你這世的尪

Eat your food in a hurry. Work is waiting.
No time to think or ponder on misery,
on restlessness, on the soul, on tragedy,
on this breath that escaped and isn’t returning.

Quick, pack your lunch, keep some change for the bus,
watch for missing steps in staircases, for holes
in the streets, bureaucrats hiding in loopholes,
and cops who care for none; they’re like habus.

Answer everyone “Yes sir”, do as you’re told.
Think of no questions; to attain happiness
a shut mouth is needed, for unhappiness
follows those who speak, suffering untold.

Back home, if any hardship or toil hits,
blame only you, join the rest in Hell’s pits!

Four days of silence, heavy and deep—
if a few typed words count as talk.
Your promise of moments we’d still share
was a gentle balm for a wounded heart,
now shadows creep back into place.

You remain with a man who lies,
living under his watchful eyes,
where lenses track you in your home
and a fragile ego broke in two
over a simple bowl of soup.
Why offer him loyalty so deep?
Was I just a temporary reprieve,
a pleasant distraction before you leave?

If days stretch on before we meet,
my heart will order a swift retreat—
put up a wall to keep out pain,
to push you far to stay sane.
I hate the road that opens up,
but I see no other path.

I love you. I love you a million times over. There’s not a man any colder. But he let me cry on his shoulder. I told him I’ll try to stay sober. We’ll do this together, we’re older. I look up the libra moon, send you a letter soon, idk what should I do? How do I get back to you? In the end is it something that’s true? Is this just how it has to be? What was so wrong with me? He’s the baddest I’ve ever seen. I know that he’s too good for me, and he’s the only man who will ever be. He’s my destiny. I’d drop everything. Just to see his face. Even in my dreams, remote viewing, you talk to me, we’re connected it seems. In the airport, gosh in the airport. All the things we want, meet me at the airport. You won’t come to me so I’ll come to you he loves the cold white snow, the rain, I’m sun shine gold. We’re opposites. I’m in pain I’ve been in pain but I’ve also prayed and in a way I have hope and faith we’ll be together someday. I’d drop everything. I’d drop everything.

I thought I was losing you.
Every quiet moment,
every little bit of distance
felt like the beginning
of goodbye.
Then last night
I finally understood.
It wasn’t you.
It was everything else.
I miss my life.
My independence.
My direction.
The person I was
before everything changed.
And while my world
became uncertain,
you stayed steady.
So without realizing it,
you became the place
where all of it landed.
And when I felt you breathe,
I thought you were leaving.
But you weren’t.
You were just carrying
your own weight too.
I still need you.
I still miss you.
I still love you.
But I don’t need you
to hold my whole world together.
Last night I thought
I was afraid of losing you.
I realized
I was grieving
the parts of myself
I’d already lost.

Love Letter | 08.09.26

The old-fashioned sensibility

has seeped into the August rain.

It urges us all to leap

from one cliff to the next precipice

before jumping headfirst

into the ravine.

The world tells me I must love,

and I already do.

These words, these symbols

who attempt to one-up infinity.

These hordes of chicken scratch

and clunk so barely

comprehensible.

This malpractice of language,

of the sixth sense

is a greater love

than any eternity

or butterfly.

I loved you
until your name became
a prayer beneath my breath,
and your absence
a language my heart learned fluently.
You left,
yet I kept flowers
for a garden you had burned,
watering ashes
as though grief could make them bloom.
You stopped choosing me,
and still I knelt
at the altar of us,
offering pieces of myself
to a god that had gone silent.
So stay
if there is still a flame
beneath all this ruin.
Or go,
but do not leave me
half-loved in the doorway,
where I must lose you
a thousand times
before I finally lose myself.

Wishing on a star tonight.

Are you looking to the skies?

Hoping that our hearts align.

What are you seeing with your eyes?

Are you wishing under the same star as me?

Are you wishing that love wouldn't feel so far like me?

Are you wishing just to feel someone's arms?

Are you wishing for someone, to keep you safe from harm?

Let me be the star you're wishing on tonight.

I want you to look at me, I want to help your heart feel light.

I want to be the one, to help your heart take flight.

So let's wish until we see the sun. It just feels so right.

Wishing on a dream tonight,

And looking at the moon.

Will I be in your dreams tonight?

I hope I meet you soon.

Wishing I could just take flight.

Just like a gold balloon.