By Luchang Zhu
Are there two identical clouds in the sky?
If not,
why does this one feel familiar,
like a cloud from my hometown
returning unannounced?
Are there two identical people on the planet?
If not,
why does your presence stir something in me,
like B cells
recognizing a second encounter?
Are there two identical days in a life?
If not,
why did a decade collapse into a single afternoon,
like one page
carbon-copied onto the next?
Luchang Zhu is a microbiologist living in Iowa. Originally from China, he recently began writing poetry in his second language to explore the intersections of science, memory, and the search for meaning and belonging.
Academy of the Heart And Mind 