"Three Demons": Sanki Series II
Sand mixed
atomic
dust billows—
fountain, spring.
FORGOTTEN—
beetle,
skittering
on a leash.
Around
the grave—
virility, in
an ant
swarm.
As I leave the lake,
duck eggs
weep
in my palm.
Clouds;
sunflowers
scatter in quest
of
a sun beyond.
Bronze Statue, GAZE—
red horizon,
red lightning.
Goldfish
lick the icy
lake’s wispy sole
then
sink.
Frosted lamp:
SEQUENCE—
A Country Destroyed.
Distant
place—
autumn
sunset; one
piano plays.
Rice gruel;
cats conceal
no- solitude.
Night sky;
flower
patch;
blackbirds taking
flight.
From parted lips—
cream
plumes; taps
on iron plates.
Snow clinging
to window
panes, the
faces of disease.
Father and
Son
plow the autumn
fields— one
a mirror
of
the next.
Snow town:
blood-drips from
big
and small
fish.
CLOUDY—
cherry
blooms; tongue
wandering
in a mirror.
Maiden’s sun-
bathed grave
blistering to the touch.
POWs
asleep on the
rugged
lake shore.
MILKY WAY—
I, whom
the
dogs trust.
Day
light
crescent moon, no-
lizards
somersaulting.
Sun from yesterday,
drying sweet
potatoes again
today.
Hands peel
persimmons
as my mother
peeled
persimmons.
Paper
cherry
blooms,
blackened elegies
fall
to soil.
How not to see—
the
shadow the cricket tows.
In trenches
divine
dog
tags gleam.
SPRING
night—
kids, on a train
passing,
blink.
Distant window:
no-
faces,
only the crimson
sun.
This morning, a
friend
died, and a stray
dog
chewed on grass.
Great winter
tunnel
enclosing
the old man’s gaze.
A-Bomb Day,
loud- speakers
face
the open
sea.
