Twenty-Past Three (4 page)

Among you we are crushed

as a peppercorn under a pestle

as an ortolan by mouths in black hoods,

pressed hard in a vacuum pack

as cheap spongy bacon.

Breath that burns

Dead awake.

Historical restrospective

In the warning scent of treaty

Links ally in support, opposing

details lost in pictorial fiction,

a different reading.

Insatiable dreamer,

An important day.

Tonight,

I wish to dance over the moon,

I wish to awaken Neferttiti

from her slumber and together

sip the nectar of rose petal syrup.

I wish to gather with the lepidopterological

Monarchs on the hills of Michocán and drown

in the scent of the first hanami in late spring.

This is my home coming, legato.

I could not have moved on

from where I had never been.

In silence lays understanding.