If I told them everything, I think the birdswould tut, sympathy coating every titter, claiming that the world would be betteroff had I succeeded the first, the second, the eleventh time I triedTo rid this monster of its next second — its reflectionin a noose, its remembrance painted in a yellow CAUTION tape begging “Active Scene of Crime …
Alone with the films I don’t remember. Blue heavy air rests on my face I’m trying to bring out unintelligible noise like two cats fighting in the corner of my bedroom. It is the math. The dissonance of my imagination but I couldn’t believe the same words were pulled out of you. Waiting for letters while diadems of flowers are formed. They are worth …
thwarted by typhoons & no ferryto Aka Island till maybe tomorrowwe rent a car & driveto the Former JapaneseNavy UndergroundHeadquarters — Okinawa meansrope over the sea — hacked deep in the hill in ’44 by soldierswith pickaxes & hoes & ropebaskets for haulingthe dirt to the surface,450 meters & notoilets & now here comes the Typhoon of …
Continue reading “taken to private areas & harmed” By Jason Emde
In my silent meditation, hushed words quiver and mutter, begging for release; to be unleashed from their confines —rattling their chains in a crescendothat cannot be left unforeseen or unheard. I bend my head to these words. The trees prostrate themselves before the figure that is formed. The date is chewed and shared with the …
Danny says he’ll sell from under-neath me. Where does the magic gowhen the house is pulled away? Anyway,I believe him, so I stitch my lips tomy eyes by the corners, and scramble thelittle yellow suns with a pinch of black pepper. I walked into a purple-blackbruise again. He doesn’t under-stand why I can’t just be …
When you bow down, bow low so that your fore-head touches the ground. Then the emperoror president is pleased. This is the wayto fool the fool so he won't ask for more. Should Caesar linger long enough, try kneeling.This might convince him, if he's at all feeling,that he owes you. And he may knight you, …
She had the look of a Playmobil in her features,walked with hot-coal feet, smiled as if sheknew the world was going to end tomorrow. At break she smoked by the doorway, puffedthe ink out of a Biro, made paper aeroplanesfrom her wages and threw them onto the street. She tied her hair in a bobble, …
You see it again as glass, the daylight's shifting alliances each view a mild dissection slivered in shadow how quickly the silver eye absorbs every flaw or sideways glance you search the raw sea for approval, water holding its breath, in darkness your skingreen eyes gray clouds lost in shadow what will you find, seeking shelter beneath——— this bending surface? A slight breeze the curtain shifts — you float through light, the image skews. Now beige, now pink. I …
Continue reading “Mirrors: A Conversation” By Allison Goldstein
the red earth path brings searing heat,homes among mangoesand palm trees bursting with orange coconuts;a gravel road, plastic scraps,an old sack, an empty stall stinkingof palm oil in the sun.tuk-tuk men call to collect me,my white skin attracting them like a neon signin the night,but I walk on, past the railway station dog,his sweet tawny …
Wait a moment.The boys are laughing outside,Chasing leaves through the dust.Pale leaves curl around the sill,Like fragile ears bending to listen.I have your words in my hand.They weigh heavy. Just paper,A bit of ink, traced there byA cold and trembling hand.Yet I feel worlds between my fingers.Not just this one, but the next.I have always …
Burnt Pine 