Into the Wind

by Freeman Ng

After Jenifer Follman’s “Never Let Me Go”

In January, against
all sense and habit, I turned
and started walking
into the wind.

In February, the wind held
a secret warmth
that colonized my heart beneath
its skin of chill.

In March, the wind made promises
I believed. I made
no plans for any
other destination.

 In April, each whiskered twitch,
barbed suppleness, puff
of protoplasm on the wind,
blew every way there was.

In May, the wind
took note of me.

In June, I lengthened my stride
and slowed my pace,
measuring these alterations against
the constant wind.

In July, the sun met me coming,
going, passing. The facelong wind
was flesh
of summer’s body.

In August, the wind carried notes
of distant construction,
salt,
and burnt umber.

September passed
like a stiff wind,
leaving behind
the outline of my body

In October,
someone fell away from beside me
I hadn’t known
was there.

In November, I became
whatever is to wind
as translucent
is to light.

In December I pressed
through a flurry of eternities, no two
alike. I was the wind
I faced, that walked.

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Freeman Ng is the author of Bridge Across the Sky, a YA verse novel based on the Chinese immigration experience through Angel Island (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2024); Basho’s Haiku Journeys, a haiku picture book (Stone Bridge Press, 2021); Haiku Diem, a daily haiku feed; and Trumpbert, a political webcomic. He’s also the co-author, with Peter Dale Scott, of Poetry and Terror: Politics and Poetics in Coming to Jakarta (Bloomsbury USA, 2019). Ripples, a picture book about gravitational waves and friendship written by Freeman and illustrated by Daniel Miyares, is forthcoming from Neal Porter Books in Fall 2027. Instagram: @authorFreeman5