Here there is red tile,
a blue pane of water
and fat tight around
their necks, wrists, ankles,
loose around their stomachs.
They line up and wait,
we wait, the pane of water waits
for this unsanctioned championship -
no prize money, no pictures
in the local paper.
I will only remember what happened here
because I wrote it down.
They will only remember until
their pinkbellies fade,
the […]
I write: green on green attempting sky
but that is laziness or recklessness or worse.
This is brown of peeling bark,
skittering black legs, silver shine of abdomen.
This is curled grey fern, beige talon,
orange flash of throat.
This is fading sun and rising song.
This is light play on tree trunks
and rainwater spilled from leaf to leaf.
This is a thousand […]
i met him in his home town
(one of those generic chinese industrial towns
where they make plastic army men and fake
dog vomit and drink whatever petro-chemicals
they don’t inhale)
he was half my age and height but he had a ball
and was enamored by the notion of seeing a white man jump
so we played basketball for three days […]
i would tug on my work boots every evening
and go out, and when i’d find it
i would reach into the soil,
bite my grip around it tight,
and pull it out, roots bursting like firecrackers.
i would carry it in the bowl of my hands
to the farmhouse and rinse it in the kitchen sink.
i would press my fingers […]
