Korean Boys
summer night in Chicago dark, thick with humidity quiet shredded by motorcycle buzz down Kedzie Avenue Korean boys in black jeans and tank tops with red dragons arms tatooed eyes blank behind mirrored sunglasses black hair gelled into ferocious Elvis waves riding Suzukis and Kawasakis too young for big hog Harleys sneering teenage laughter mocking […]
In the Event of My Demise
I don’t sleep well. How could I? I’m worried all the time, and the media are continuously adding to the list of reasons I should be. Yesterday, during the hours-long wait between the CT scan and an appointment to review the results with my oncologist, I made a pillow of my arms in the hospital […]
Modern Map (Body)
Deconstruct my bones. Scatter the stardust across the skies. Spread my fingers out like mountain ridges, wander, slow across the curves like molasses. Take apart my being, fill the sockets with spray paint and candle wax. Peel back the mirrors of my eyes and memorize the reflection of the past and the […]
Moonlight on Thin Gray Hair
In the narrow room above the temple’s tiled roof, she sits by the window that never quite closes, a small woman folded into years like old incense paper. Mei Yue’s chants rise through the floorboards— soft bells, wooden fish clacking like gentle reminders that all things pass, even the ache in her knees. She listens, […]