Next: A Free Sonnet in Infinitives, My Crows, Hocus Pocus

by | Jun 11, 2019 | Issue Nine, Poetry

Next: A Free Sonnet in Infinitives

To be               a matter when there’s no question

Or not to be     a question when nothing really matters

To sing            with a frog squatting straight

On a lotus leaf in the Honghu Lake    near Jingzhou

    To recollect             all the pasts, and mix them

Together like a glass of          cocktail

To build                      a nest of meaning

Between two broken branches on       Ygdrasil

To strive          for deity

Longevity        and

Even happiness

To come          on and off line every other while

To compress    consciousness into a file, and upload it

    Onto a nanochip.     To be daying, to                    die

My Crows

1/

Still, still hidden

Behind old shirts and pants

Like an inflated sock

Hung on a slanting coat hanger

With a prophecy stuck in its throat

Probably too dark or ominous

To yaw, even to breathe

No one knows when or how

It will fly out of the closet, and call

2/

Like billions of dark butterflies
Beating their wings
Against nightmares, rather

Like myriads of
Spirited coal-flakes

Spread from the sky
Of another world

A heavy black snow
Falls, falling, fallen
Down towards the horizon

Of my mind, where a little crow

White as a lost patch

Of autumn fog

Is trying to fly, flapping 
From bough to bough

Hocus Pocus

This [bread] is no other than

Jesus’ flesh

This [horse’s open mouth] is        Vaisvanara

This [word] has 

  A magic power

This [fish head] brings

 Courage & posterity

This [fluid] cures

    All diseases

This [sequence of syllables] drives away

  All evils & devils

This [ritual] ensures

      Good weather & good harvest

This [hat/hood] guarantees 

    Purity, loyalty

This [flag] leads right

                             To paradise

This [man] is

       A living god

This [statue, foiled or not] is

Omnipotent

This [chip] will transform us

       Into superbeings

So, that is the whole story:

All is well that believes well

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