In “Do Not Heal”, poet Cathy Xinman constructs a subtle yet striking tension between the natural world and contemporary human systems. The cherry blossom, traditionally a symbol of beauty and transience, is recontextualized here within a framework shaped by technology, economics, and global structures.
The poem juxtaposes elements such as AI, tariffs, and oil prices with the ephemeral presence of the blossom, creating a layered contrast between what can be measured, explained, and priced, and what ultimately resists all forms of human interpretation.
The language remains deliberately restrained, allowing fragmentation and silence to carry meaning. The poem does not resolve its tensions but instead sustains them, suggesting that the natural world exists beyond the reach of human narratives—whether technological, economic, or historical.
In this sense, “Do Not Heal” is not merely a meditation on cherry blossoms, but a reflection on the limits of human systems in confronting what is inherently untranslatable.
Do Not Heal
by Cathy Xinman
The sun is under the sky.
Smile—cherry blossoms are under the sky, too.
They open their eyes with spring.
Are you caring about humans?
You will bloom, depart, and die.
You should remember I wrote poems for you.
How can I let you know?
I record fallen petals on my phone.
AI will encourage me to explain
the meaning of your arrival in this world.
You seem as if you want to intervene in this Earth
I touch you—body, emotion, and spirit.
Do not heal.
I have just paid the bill.
Your arrival makes me feel
you still belong to another world—
without pain,
without war,
without sorrow.
The Earth cannot tell you
you have missed a year of tariffs.
The most precious things are free.
Look—before the cherry blossoms fall into the water,
they are so beautiful:
hanging on the tree,
drifting in the rain,
falling to the ground.
Only you are in motion,
across the unbridgeable—
past, present, and future.
I hold down the trembling wind.
The finest imagination flickers in the heart.
Sunlight is like a weak being.
We have many stories—
from the East and the West.
The rise in oil prices has nothing to do with you.
None of this can be told to you,
because children are beside you,
because you are about to leave.
Cathy Xinman writes poetry in English and Chinese. Find her English-language collection, Where You Love Yourself, on Amazon. You can also hear her poetry on her TikTok page. The Toronto Spark is on Bluesky @torontospark.bsky.social.
