SPEAKING

Dog, I am awake so 

Do not waste your time

Barking at me. Later 

My father, who spoke 

With cats and dogs,

With angels and birds

With trees and golems

With men and women

May turn up in a dream;

He will interpret for us.

ABROAD

That summer I slept

Under a tin roof; rain 

Made early music.

I drank sheep's milk

Rich and quite good

In hot chocolate. 

Two girls sang

Watching lips

To stay in time.

One night I dreamt

I was fighting.

No rules apply

In foreign dreams;

I kicked my opponent 

Who made himself 

Into a wall.

Asked why I limped,

I blamed the wall.

FOR DH

You were the best teller of tales -- not stories --

I've ever known. Since you're dead I will never

Have reason to visit Yakima and will never know

From which small pieces of truth you made 

Better truths, stronger and built to last.

Did you ever teach yourself to see

Your awful hometown as full of wonders?

Just before you died did the Dalai Lama 

Slip into your hand a peacock feather 

Knowing you, of all men, would understand?

TEA

As if he hadn’t been gone for weeks,
Worrying everyone, Satan showed up
Late one afternoon with some tea
He insisted upon brewing himself.
“The thing about God,” he said
“Is that He’s very lonely. In a way
There’s no one but Him. If He wants
To talk, He talks to Himself or
To hypothetical beings. I told Him
It would be a bad idea to create me
That I was sure at worst to rebel
And at best to be a smartass. But

He feared that going on talking to me

When I wasn’t actually there

Might be a sign of madness. Also,

No one can brew tea so well as I.”

FOR AESRED

Being new and

Inexperienced at death

The ghosts take turns 

Mourning each other.

GATHERING

To be at Du Fu's drinking party

Li Po crossed a thousand miles

Old Sin Ju outdid him, though,

Arriving from the land of the dead

Already extremely drunk.

ENCOUNTER

Visiting the grave of my younger self 

I brought some flowers, planning

To speak a few words of polite regret

But there he lay, on top of the ground,

Idly dreaming at half-past noon! Angrily,

I kicked him; if he's going to insist

On being alive he should stop dreaming 

And help with the hard work of being me.