Breath’s Opinion
in memory of Sam Seskin All I know is: at this moment, a young scholar solves a century-old problem. A group of six climbs Everest, a group…
look, my monologue has broken off
look, my monologue has broken off I don’t know who’s guilty maybe my own brain allured towards another light by the little beggars who tug on your sleeves …
she told me to color my hair
she told me to color my hair and cut it I want to stay wild as in my childhood when the trees were god’s lungs and the stars the…
leave me alone with my head under the pillow
leave me alone with my head under the pillow so I can’t hear you when you talk in your sleep leave me alone in my darkness at my flag…
Ghost Umbilicus
To touch the indentation, purled and pinched, centered in a swale of flesh between bone ridges, point where tissue was severed, and we were torn from the beat…
Six Degrees of Separation from Kuniyoshi,
a man who covered his body in tattoos, tattoo, its root in seventeenth century Dutch for “turn off the taps,” prolonged bugle call to tavern owners so soldiers would…
34. Two tortoises on a cart pulled by a young ox
两龟乘犊车， 蓦出路头戏。 一蛊从傍来， 苦死欲求寄。 不载爽人情， 始载被沉累。 弹指不可论， 行恩却遭刺。 Two tortoises on a cart pulled by a young ox find a sudden drama on the roadside. A demon insect…
32. Why is that young man upset?
少年何所愁， 愁见鬓毛白。 白更何所愁， 愁见日逼迫。 移向东岱居， 配守北邙宅。 何忍出此言， 此言伤老客。 Why is that young man upset? He’s scared to see white hair. Why does white hair spook him? He worries…
25. The wise shun me
智者君抛我， 愚者我抛君。 非愚亦非智， 从此断相闻。 入夜歌明月， 侵晨舞白云。 焉能拱口手， 端坐鬓纷纷。 The wise shun me. I shun the fools. But I’m neither foolish nor wise, so I break off contact. At…
Epistle to the Turin Horse
Dear furred tongue, dear slack tongue of the coach, dear set piece in the apocryphal lore of a mad philosopher, you were flogged mercilessly at Piazza Carlos Alberto for…
Pear Graft
To hack an ode from a 40-year-old tree, you must spare the lower branches so they can care for roots while the new variety takes hold. Scions dislike the…