VISITING

 

Every time Innana, goddess of love,

Sex, war and politics visits her sister

Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld,

She has to gradually divest herself

Of pretty much all that makes her Innana -

Her jewels, clothes, and then her body

Except for most of her bones. When she arrives,

Ereshkigal will strike her dead (It's a sister thing)

And hang her skeleton from a hook for three days.

By now, Innana's used to this and makes arrangements

Her reflection sits on her throne and answers

Emergency prayers. On her way down to Hell

Her shadow follows, carrying empty boxes

Into which it will neatly stow her jewels,

Clothes, flesh and stray memories. She also

Carries a light lunch for when Innana wakes up.

Having been dead for more than a hour or two

Always makes Innana hungry. 

WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO NOTICE HER

Harunobu's Woman With a Black Hood
Slips into a Kuniyoshi print
Of the Forty-Seven Ronin. She's looking
For just a little conversation;
It's all very well being
The Woman With a Black Hood
Bur she gets lonely.

TO THE KOROMO RIVER

 

Riding by

Yoshitone glanced

In a pond.

His reflection

Stayed there

Hiding

Among the weeds.

In the forest

His shadow

​Lost itself

In pieces 

Too small to reassemble.

JOINING THE ARMY OF THE DEFEATED EMPEROR

 

I believe it went something like this:

The Ming Emperor has killed himself

His adherents -- few enough and growing fewer 

Trail in a long line away from the capital,

Joined by some who'd fought for the other side

But are moved by the sight of the Emperor's ghost

Wringing its hands and weeping. A soldier

Perhaps Chow Chu, sees, centuries off,

Someone reading about him and says

"One of us, I think? Come along!" and so

My father finds himself a partisan of

The most lost of all lost causes.

SUMMER

 

Auguste sleeps on a bench

In the garden. Köbes the crow

Drops on him leaves and small branches

Until he is satisfactorily hidden.

HER EARLY YEARS

 

When Esther was young she and her sister 

Somehow decided that Esther would be

The practical one and Irene would go on

Looking beautiful, playing her violin and 

Making what looked like people 

Out of smoke of which there was a lot

In Lemberg, stored there because 

If the war came there'd be a shortage

And a smart man with a warehouse 

Full of smoke could make a thaler or two.

Esther was 14 when she began working

In a cigarette factory and became 

A timekeeper and might have made a career 

There but the factory burned down;

This wasn't, she said, a bit funny since

It put her out of a job. She asked Irina

For a turn being the pretty, musical one

But Irene said no and Esther married Max.

IN ROME

 

A minimally-staffed door needs

At least three gods. If there's a key

It needs a god too. Windows,

Have no gods and fend for themselves