Formosan Elegy
You have lived six decades and you have lived none
You have loved many and you have loved no one
You wedded three wives but you lie in your cold bed alone
You sired four children but they cannot forgive you
Marilyn Chin
Get Rid of the X
My shadow followed me to San Diego
silently, she never complained.
No green card, no identity pass,
she is wedded to my fate.
The moon is a drunk and anorectic,
constantly reeling, changing weight.
My shadow dances grotesquely,
resentful she can't leave me.
The moon mourns his unwritten novels,
cries naked into the trees and fades.
Tomorrow, he'll return to beat me
blue — again, again and again.
Rhapsody in Plain Yellow
for my love, Charles (1938-2000)
Say: 言
Twenty Five Haiku
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A hundred red fire ants scouring, scouring the white peony
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Fallen plum blossoms return to the branch, you sleep, then
harden again
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Cuttlefish in my palm stiffens with rigor mortis, boy toys can't
love
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Neighbor's barn: grass mat, crickets, Blue Boy, trowel handle,
dress soaked in mud
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Iron-headed mace; double-studded halberd slice into emptiness
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