Maw Shein Win
Winter 2026 | Poetry
Headlines
Bewildered by an 11th Hour Move
Tested 16 Shoes Recommended by Experts
Blessed to Speak to her Siblings Again
The elm tree fell behind the survivalist trainer who stood in front of the group signed up for his one-day course on how to survive the apocalypse. Everyone laughed.
The rickety pink ice cream truck playing scratchy songs rolled by. Our mouths watered.
The silver frost on the windowsill of a cabin in Wyoming. Six bear sightings.
& then
& then
a leaving for dark
or if early dark wonders
a leaving or not
sleep as a flashlight
or when as once was
Nightmares Drink Outside
Blankets Transmit Messages
She moved to Portugal with her husband to start a new life
Longings
you close your lips then
leave a space for air
the desire to rise as three
slips of blue smoke
touch the downy hairs
of the opening as you
begin to merge w/ether
a longing to leave
*
then the buzzing of ruby-
throated hummingbirds
a family of elkhorn sheep
grazing on the gorge’s end
evergreen valley ahead
a longing to stay
Mouths, eyes
I bit into a chestnut
its meat fell into my throat
a silver crown
landed on my tongue
I pluck the crown
from the cave of my mouth
place it on my palm
at nightfall I crawl into
the cave curl like
a snake around a stone
a snake slips through
the water of my mouth
a snake with its head split in
two two tongues on
my tongue eyes
blink in the dark
hollow another snake
emerges from my cool palm
flicker of another tongue
snakes framed
by the gold light of the cave
After the passing
We light white candles.
I drop a sweet drink.
How are you feeling you ask.
You touch my neck.
We feel different then we feel the same.
You can feel me dream my fears.
I haven’t made the bed.
You hear another text come in.
I haven’t showered.
The ghosts took care of that already.
We touch hands at night.
I sense sounds coming from your mind.
A monarch lives on a milkweed leaf.
Ants, heat
can see through our facetime
one eye slowly drooping
both eyes a glassy black
hard to look
her caregiver relays
she’s ready to say goodbye
an uncommon heat wave up here
black ants escape overnight
take over green tablecloth
I sweep with a damp rag
say sorry again & again
Maw Shein Win's latest full-length poetry collection Percussing the Thinking Jar (Omnidawn, 2024) was shortlisted for the Northern California Book Award in Poetry. Her previous full-length collection Storage Unit for the Spirit House (Omnidawn, 2020) was longlisted for the PEN America 2021 Open Book Award, shortlisted for the Golden Poppy Award for Poetry, and nominated for the Northern California Book Award in Poetry. She is the inaugural poet laureate of El Cerrito, CA, the 2025 Berkeley Poetry Festival Lifetime Achievement Awardee, and a 2025 Recipient of the Nomadic/San Francisco Foundation Literary Award. Win's previous collections include Invisible Gifts and two chapbooks, Score and Bone and Ruins of a glittering palace. She teaches poetry in the MFA Program at the University of San Francisco and in the Low Residency MFA Program at Dominican University. mawsheinwin.com