crystallize the dew in cold breezes
as it does over tiny Kyoto roads
into a chilled Nijo-jo Castle moat
rippling green lichen to its stormy sides
looking like raked lines of pebbles
around Shitennoji Temple, Osaka
lines of sunshine in Golden Pavilion pond
shingled roof of Buddah Hall in Todaiji, Nara
far from the melted exhaustion
of deep-fried Taichung night markets
like smoke from rice-stalk bonfires, rising slowly
shrouding mountains in smog-saturated air
obscuring the fine gal she would become
a widowed bride's dalliance
upon remarriage
Dec. 19, 2016
lost in time in Sheepshead Bay
substitute Taiwanese with Russians
replace cement rectangles with mansions
potato and rice paddy for smoked fish and salads
egrets for terns
motorbikes for baby bumpers
fireworks for horns and sirens
prolific writer with writer's block
in the chill of summer
in the winter bare
Jamaica Bay farewell
literally unconscious
sea bells squinting, zephyr quaint
cannabis high tide seventies
evolving revolving readily
fearlessly alone on the rocky shore
a prince in king's borough with one glass slipper
attending to balls behind metal zippers
fruitful like a fishing boat, staying afloat
until our family returned to port
with a flow of night crawlers off the hook
diving bell pressures of a classroom,
no chapbook, no time to look
no energy arousing passion
and what is more
kept my hands off the closing doors
kept my mind on emergency cords
face crushed against a Q train window
hoping the last stop is not Coney Island frantic
but beautiful Taiwan island romantic
with dragonflies, butterflies opening eyes
a gentler Han River Atlantic
green mountains blocking the glaring sun
of a fateful Brooklyn well beyond
December 4, 2016
