A poem by Eric Yip
2nd runner-up in the 2023 Oxford Poetry Prize
ARDENTLY LOVE
愛 滋 佬
(neologism, colloquial, derogatory) a gay man
lit. ‘aids guy’
In Wojnarowicz’s Untitled (Buffaloes) there are four of them.
The one already falling is the first to be noticed. Suspended
upside down in photographic time it would be easy to invoke
Bruegel’s Icarus or a newborn grabbed by its legs and lifted.
Stooped on the cliff ’s unforgiving decline the second buffalo
accelerates against its will. Its centre of mass hurls its hull
past the limits of balance. Buffalo number three and four know
what is bound to happen. Because buffaloes are larger than us
their fear is magnified to match. Why are you sad the cliff asks
the viewer. the viewer. This happens all the time so why are you sad.
The cliff does not understand the gravity of the situation.
The photo is angry at the cliff for its ignorance and sad
at the buffaloes for dying. It has embalmed its sadness
for the viewer to imagine. I examine the photo without
having seen a buffalo or known someone lost to AIDS.
I am sixteen and realising why they call us what they call us.
The story needs the cliff as much as it needs the buffaloes.
ERIC YIP is from Hong Kong and the author of Exposure (ignitionpress, 2024). He has won the National Poetry Competition and been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem and the Michael Marks Poetry Award. He is the poetry editor at Cha.
‘Ardently Love’ was first published in the winter 2023 print issue (no. 96) of Oxford Poetry after placing third in the 2023 Oxford Poetry Prize, judged by Will Harris. Illustration (above) by Anina Takeff, commissioned for the issue.
This year’s edition of the Oxford Poetry Prize is currently open for entries:
The prize is awarded annually by Oxford Poetry for a single unpublished poem and is open to poets writing in English around the world.
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