Three Poems
Nov 5, 2023
From a distance we watch them celebrate
the sight that stuns the infant, joining
in the line of flight
an airstrike
and a firework, a trajectory obscure
obscene
though possible
our son’s face a stranger’s corpse, the fire
far beyond its flame.
Mondegreen
Wholly separated from all the world
in that low lying open land, the sound
strained by long duration. No easy marriage
that, in common law or noun, making
commitment née the compromise (the sum
of all consent) concerning countries
both concentric and contrived: an old ring
a storied bond, some united hole.
Korean Interiors
The weather in Seoul
accumulates significance
in sense, a summary
of the passing state:
26,000,000 minds
in 26,000,000 cities.
Now every single window
associates the rain
with what belongs outside
where a drunk passes
out of sense the word
for real, the word for storm.
Cover image: Luigi Ghirri, Modena 1970, Copyright Fondazione Luigi Ghirri.