Four Variations on Drowning – Emily Yang

Source: https://figments.princeton.edu/2025/12/11/four-variations-on-drowning-emily-yang/ Parent: https://figments.princeton.edu/


Mermaid and plastic buoys bobbing in teal slide from one toppled prism-face to another. So obedient. So tiny. Dolphins and pink inner tubes ride back up. Bubbles are just something so small that you can’t see it breathing.	Creatures like us see in imprints of body, a silhouette cut through dark water. Archimedes’ law, displacement dictating existence. We know where we are by the shape of what isn’t.

Say I make omelets at night

And slip socks off in the morning.

Say I want to know you.

We both have your contact info.

The socks I slip off in the morning

Will someday grow white with cobwebs.

We both know your contact info

Is home to more spider eggs than texts.

Someday we’ll grow white with cobwebs.

Still, I want to know you.

Though I’m home to more spider eggs than texts,

I make a killer omelet at night.

cells die in the saturn ring of time

just drive. drink your basil and thyme

thumb the cord palm the faucet

dry your rhymes between gilded spines(i

) wanna be happy enough to look you in the eye

Wool gathered between pinky promises

Looks so lovely under the moonlight.

I could live in a castle of yarn,

my drawbridge of straw

opening only to let the Instacart in.

Don’t ask about the depths of my fridge.