The Thirtieth Year after Lucille Clifton I had expected to be an ordinary woman. Dreamed of daughters, beauty, life made whole by them. Then the year of losing came, the … Read the rest

Dear Time, how many knees wasted at the wrong pulpit? thought i worshipped the future, but it was pleasure all along. thought my prayer aimed for peace, but it was … Read the rest

21 Years After the U.S. Invasion of Iraq, I Confront Mary Oliver’s Ghost in the Middle of a Genocide I ask her if she’s picked any flowers today, and what… Read the rest

Pastoral on the Invention of Screaming Two mice in the traps this morning— One of them with just a paw in the trap’s maw— Do I really have to tell … Read the rest

Ode to Palm Tree They are so skinny and tilted and giving and unbroken. Tipsy nightclub curve, tropical bones of our festive dirt. Thrashed by storm. Under hurricane they whip … Read the rest

translated by Edward Gunawan Muscle Mary ma didn’t get mad when I told her I’m attracted to other men, on one condition: “most important is you don’t become the woman.”… Read the rest

Listening Years of that poem with the horse coin stuck on the tongue to death… years of that poem on the wall & what distilled was appetite. | X … Read the rest

In Defense of Sadness Sadness is not the same as sorrow, melancholy, woe or despair. Sadness is sweeter than its synonyms. When Issa writes, this dewdrop world is but a … Read the rest

Translated by Emily Lu Taipei Basin I’m the one scrubbing the basin mould in the bottom of Taipei basin thanks humidity of the basin thanks feet thanks face… Read the rest

Short Film (I) Pleasure is cold fruit, the choice to eat it. See me, aperture wide, that I appear to be sprawled across the quaternary, elaborately a part of the … Read the rest