My Hematologist Listens to My Love Songs
As he daintily places the stethoscope on my skin.
First the heart, my left bundle branch block(ed) heart
where no electricity has seen the light of day.
His breath is fig-marmalade sweet.
My Hematologist Listens to My Love Songs
As he daintily places the stethoscope on my skin.
First the heart, my left bundle branch block(ed) heart
where no electricity has seen the light of day.
His breath is fig-marmalade sweet.
Winterberries
I’m sorry says the doctor with his finger inside me. I’m sorry says my shimmering body. Green penny. Sunlit fish. The lights gallop inside from wherever they went. The only way forward is through. And the only …
Read Moreafter Brigit Pegeen Kelly
The eye was open, and wide, and writhed in a wretched way,
Not as a marble would roll out of a child’s hand, no, it writhed
Like a worm would away from its halved self.
Devotional Image and Eating-Paper
My prettiest dress will one day
be worn by another my hip would then be
as her husband would tell her just a
little curve in the mirror legs under
silk he says do
[The abject] is simply a frontier, a repulsive gift that the Other, having become alter ego, drops so that the “I” does not disappear in it but finds, in that sublime alienation, a forfeited existence.
—Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: …
Read MoreIt was a shock to hear of Franklin Odo’s death in September 2022. I’d not known he’d been ill with cancer, so, when the news reached me in Oregon, where I teach, it was sudden. He was kupuna to me, …
Read MoreReflections on the anniversary of the
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
When we were kids, my American-born siblings and I didn’t know the truth behind my father’s citizenship. He kept his immigration history an ironclad secret. We accused him …
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a. Driving Home from the Night Shift, Our Mother
Listens to Hank Williams’ “Lost Highway”
She cracks the window,
letting the cold air
slap her awake. Cranking
the radio, she sings
along as she leans
into the burn of …
We are here now. Not where we said we would be. But also not where we never thought of. We are here. It is still unknown whether we will be on our way. Whether we will be tortured. But for …
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