Missing Poemsthis is but a moonless night, and my pillow has no tear stains— it is in the grocery aisle amid the frozen vegetables that I long for you +
my pen poised above the notepaper— no words come for my friend moving away
where the rain-deepened creek rushes into Buntzen Lake I think to myself, here I would have to raise my voice were I with someone
I miss you in this evening rain and knowing that I have no idea if you miss me too makes me miss you even more
morning mist— I slow down on the sidewalk to stay behind the woman wearing my wife’s perfume
I’d abandon all my peaches to exceed my joy from a thousand nightly dreams— just one nod from you passing in the market
(after Ono no Komachi)
the rose you gave me has dropped all its petals to the windowsill— overnight, I did not hear the rain as each petal fell
on the day my old girlfriend moves away, I change my calendar to a picture of spring
trimming my nails on a summer afternoon, I think of you— yesterday you told me you just cut your hair
reading her letter again on my afternoon walk . . . a leaf falls never to return to its branch
I am at your door, knocking— as I turn away in a gathering rain I wonder if you stand at my door, knocking, knocking
so lonely again this night . . . the moonlight spills over the levee toward your street
you speak of the distance between us now yet still I remember the smallness of your breasts, how they delighted me
you would not sleep on the pillow I shared with a previous lover— would you come now, now that I have a hundred new pillows
compared to broad night the darkness of your love withheld is a deeper darkness, still I long for you for the cold frost of dawn
like a songbird released from the bounds of a cage I dance in the light released from old love and yet . . . and yet . . .
for now the roses bloom, but tomorrow when their fragrance has gone, will you still remember me and my poem?
I am awake tonight not because of a bright moon or lovesickness, but mere insomnia—and you, you would not care the reason
this cold lonely night without you, with no chance of seeing you again, how I wish I could turn off the moon
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