is confronted by their unfamiliarfaces, mangled laid bare in the verdant grasslike a falcon devours a field mouse bloodon the rust-hued walls of a campfire throwing sparks in your eyes, andthe numbers: 09650, 05653 Peering deeper intothe pages until they can no longerbe read in English For the Japanese- Americans who lived through internment.
natural world
Caught Between the Hours
Have you looked upat the stars lately? Have you watched the Moon bowor gulp light from her holy grail? Have you howled at her?The sky mother. Oozing through the gate, a vaporous,sweet olive black night in the distance, a coyote yelping
Littered With Salvation
A flask-shaped bald head olive-black eyes. Short chestnutbrown eyebrows. Oshkosh B’goshoveralls and an ultraviolet purplesleeved shirt. Like small dollspatched with the materials of a day’s harvestsinking into the earthinto a wormhole of foliage, laughing at nothingbut the act of knowing that sometimes it’s commonand good to laugh at nothing. We played unconcealed. Outside. Submerged in winding branches and […]
A Sacrament
Consuming the soft crystalthe alien looked like a probe sent into the orbit of my brain. I gazed wondrously intoits big, Texas-sized eyes. The room became calmlike twilight. The oak trees,the ones outside, felt destroyed, as if they were knocked over,and placed on an 18 wheelerheading out of the great forests. As the scent of sandalwood […]
Thanksgiving (Inspired by Francis of Assisi)
Brother Wind, you are so usefuland humble. Without asking foranything, you refresh our lungs.Thank you Brother Fire, you do not charge foryour warmth or shut off our lights whenwe are not able to pay the bill.Thank you Sister Water, you quench our thirst andhonor our bodies with your life force. Thank youMother for not checkingour […]
The Deep Void
Master Jingzong; English translation by Fole, edited by Fojin When I was young, I liked staring at a patch of blue sky surrounded by fluffy white clouds. It looked so deep and boundless to me. I was fascinated and could look at it all day. This is my intuitive feeling, as a man on earth, […]