From a Three-Cornered World by James Masao Mitsui

Author:James Masao Mitsui
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: 2016-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

In Sight of Purple Crocus, Grey Burnished Sunlight

Faintly Shadowing This Poem

Man cannot be an island, but his memory is.—Enrico Mario Santi

You can place your hands in the blouse

of a woman who loves you.

It’s all right to admit that rice is steaming

in the kitchen, and you love irises so much

they spread across one of your walls.

You have permission to wear Levi’s & cowboy boots

teaching school, because of your poetry.

You can slip wine into spaghetti sauce,

put spiders outside instead of killing them,

and admit that you were named the outstanding

graduate of your ROTC class.

You are even allowed to laugh affectionately

at the invitation to join

your high school class’s 25th reunion.

But I have just returned from feeding my mother her pills,

and her fading eyes & the spine

that is bending her memory

disagree with her comment that my life

is just starting. I sit at my desk

and argue with the crocus, the daffodils,

even the new growth on the laurel.

This is February, and the people killing each other

in the film about Gandhi

should not be slaughtering their way into the news

again. As this island called Monday

fades, the light-grey leaves of evening

become paper cutouts and I will wedge myself

into sleep. Time unrolls flat as film

and there are too many side streets to death.

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