Broken Bird

this is where
the bird flew
through the glass

this is where
the bomb-shaped
blue jay passed

this is where
the shattered
are scattered

inside the dead
shed? or out toward
the buttery grass?

Pun and Punishment

water is torture

going without going under
not going across

going going gong

mickey mantle just hit a home run on the radio

what I am said to have said

in my sleep in my bed

who told?

they have written down

in the form of a confession

I am swimming, dog paddling to be precise,

in small discrete sea of uncooked rice

in a walled courtyard of a small country church

with a handful of guests waving

waving as from the shore

I have apparently cried out in my sleep

     I want to marry Marilyn, not Mei,

     but Marilyn from America

so they seized all of my books

except for the little red one

I must wear paper handcuffs

(and if I tear them then I’m clearly a rebel)

not because of my dreams

but because of my letter in

perfect English

I wrote my sister that

my cat took a long march

into my neighbor’s yard

and returned to my porch

to clean her hindquarters with her mousey tongue

Family Portrait: Day at the Beach

father floats 

on his back spouting

the surf into the curbed sky
his treasured trunks puffed with captured air

sister sinks

and they drag her by

the hair to the beach to kiss

her blue mouth into a borrowed flame

brother fends

for himself spurning

the ferris wheels turning to

mothsoft towels their lubricious machines

mother sails

for the horizon

the oblivious smack slips

off of the dizzy lip of the whirled