Well--this is terrible. Not gonna try to deny that! I wanted to try a smaller poem because I think it's much more difficult than a longer poem; it's difficult to say much and do much and show off any technique in a tiny poem. I was going to try an even smaller one, but I couldn't find anything I wanted to try. Maybe next week. Anyways--I hate this, but it's an Improv, and it gave me a better idea of what I wanted to write, which is less overtly whiney, so I guess that's good...
Missing You
-Shu Ting, translated from the Chinese by Carolyn Kizer
A multi-colored chart without a boundary;
An equation chalked on the board, with o solution;
A one-stringed lure that tells the beads of rain;
A pair of useless oars that never cross the water.
Waiting buds in suspended animation;
The setting sun is watching from a distance.
Though in my mind there may be an enormous ocean,
What emerges is the sum: a pair of tears.
Yes, from these vistas, from these depths,
Only this.
______
Because she can wear crumbled-bag boots
and trousers mud-dyed like the cracks of a spit can;
Because of the soft lullaby of her vowels;
Because I know you held hands like thumb-wrestling,
more like hayrides, more like deer carving, more like snapping on the camouflage vest--
I carve knish stains out of my blouses
and try to trade my sneakers for tennis shoes.
I crinkle at all the sound of my teeth-clacking consonants
I learn bow hunting in my cul-de-sac basketball court, aim between the Crape Myrtles
and set a trap to mangle your hand to mine.
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