My Calenture

My Calenture

1. My Mind Sang within the fields

A paper cup

Its hot surface steaming in my palms

I poured in clouds of cream

That pulled me deeper              a whole year of fields

Three hour car trips to Katsuyama

Our blue Nissan penciling through the orange and yellow mountains

into the horizontal plains of rice and wheat

The temples that housed legions of marble bald men that stared as we wrote our prayers in incense

You             three inch high heels on your feet

The worn out band aid on your left heel    a crop circle    our three hour ascent

To the onsen     where we faded into our sex and dreamed of each other on the other side

Our naked bodies plunged into steaming pools

Buoyant bubbles that whistled as they burst

Myself         a rag doll      a long fermata in that moment

When you emerged     your long wet hair limp at your side

Your smile             praying for tomorrows

Just like this

2.The Impact of Goodbyes

Still I sang

alone for you

The December nights in Irinaka Park

The rusty swings we crucified ourselves on

Examined the last bit of green collapse from tides of snow

Lake water stilled in time

Talks of baseball     the ramen smell in our mouths

Not yet to know how it felt to cry

That time

When I hugged the taupe scarf around your neck

When your body pixelated from the Meitetsu train window

3.Arose from the Foam

The last ounce of sun in the afternoon

Curtained down my coffee cup

Silhouetted my table at an empty Oceanside cafe

The La Jolla waves tugged and warred buttressed against the hissing sand

       Flashbacks of last year

Your whispering voice contrasted the thunder      your three-inch high heels

Now rested under the chair in front of me

Yesterdays I had dreamt poured into tomorrows

When I looked up from my cup

And saw you