Posts Tagged "poem"

Father on Glass Wings

Death calls from Colorado spring. The phone
tells me you jumped: angel with dizzy stone
arms, floating on glass wings. But you don’t land.
Childhood. We’re selling watch straps, store to store,
sharing a shabby Greystone room.

Read More...

Instructions for a Tibetan Air Burial

by Felix Jung The vultures, about 50 of them altogether, ambled slowly up the hill and took to the air with evident difficulty, overfed as they are from this daily ritual. —New York Times, 7.3.99 What you see in front of you is only a body. Take your knife and begin with the feet, the toes. Oranges never cry when…

Read More...

My Grandmother, the Poet

>Grandma and I were sitting in the airplane on-route to Cabo. She looked out the window and inspiration came to her. She asked for pen and paper and wrote this poem in a matter of minutes.

Read More...

Obol

Our family stands on a hill high above
Los Angeles, holding stacks of paper
in our hands, thick Chinese characters
scrawled in ink. Yut Cheen, one thousand,
the smallest sits at the top. Each bill
is bigger than the last, ten thousand, one
hundred thousand, the sum so large
it makes me dizzy trying to count.

Read More...

The Death of Marilyn Monroe

The ambulance men touched her cold
body, lifted it, heavy as iron,
onto the stretcher, tried to close the
mouth, closed the eyes, tied the
arms to the sides, moved a caught
strand of hair, as if it mattered,

Read More...