Looking Up
Home, 5:37 pm EST She was supposed to call. Wasn’t she? Hadn’t they talked about it, or texted about it, just earlier that week? She had said she would call at 5:30 on Thursday. Was it Thursday? Yes, it was Thursday, she had marked her calendar that hung on the wall next to the picture […]
jingjing
晶晶 jingjing a name that belongs to me in a language which does not belong to me i can’t even recognize the characters of my own goddamn name one that pushed me out into the world and abandoned me on the streets at 11 months only to reappear in government agencies when they ask […]
On Commission
Somebody told me once paint them a picture and they will love it for yourself So I agreed and made it dapple sun shines in on winter grindstone surface like the frozen moon Monolith of purpose made to crush the necks and hands of me for trying to paint it all at once It pays […]
A Vague Blueprint
I choose to be a placemaker, an architect whose only materials are a rise in the voice and a pile of words – broken, orphaned little things that ignorant people call lies. Ignorant people who cannot feel the difference between potential and progress, who see no use for second chances. I refuse to build labyrinthine […]
Sterile
“It’s about time.” “I must say he’s never looked better.” “Haven’t seen him out of cargo shorts in a decade.” “Good riddance.” By midday, the gathering around Bill Thorton’s coffin had grown to the size of spectacle. Guests peered over each other’s shoulders, craning their necks to compete for a glance at the man. His […]
The Goof
Inspired by The Man-Moth by Elizabeth Bishop The goof climbs from the sewers, hair matted with cheap alcohol and pigeon scat. He has a skittish grin that violently shakes the confines of his formless face. Don’t leave your clothes in the laundromat. With the mildew comes the goof. He climbs out, fingers snapping, […]
Bones of an Incomplete Soul
It must be odd for my mother To have a white child to hold To see it grow up in a poisonous land With pockets of silver and gold To speak in the beautiful language The one that she holds so dear But it only blinks twice, and then blinks again Wishing it was able […]
Useful Dust
I kick around the dust pile that breathes through my stereo its indifference and grace nothing kept silent for a while. when there was nothing left to say we hid the breasts of chicken from our kin they didn’t bother to raise the tin lid little drops of honey like dew flew away all this […]
Sounds on 47th Street
There is a horrendous roar outside my window like that of a desperate train squeaking against the rail to come to a stop. To pick up the hopeless people for another day. The friction sparks, like the billboards yelling across the street with light, fragments, frames by the second. Squeak, roar, howl, There is endless […]
Untitled
if the mountains call for me remind them of the time they turned their backs as I raced through the wind, knuckles white and vision glossed. toss their offer into the most shallow waters and watch the droplets ricochet. if the mountains call for me, pick up on my behalf; please, tell them that I […]
