Issue 11 – Winter 2006 – Jane Joritz Nakagawa

Jane Joritz Nakagawa

 

(from) Evil nature (2)

 

… frothy the clouds                
                                                (….pays no money…) 

                        … trying to buy a war ….                    with them …

running from the wind but….  escape….    is…

….could choke on …                  clouds while        …..     swallowing the sky….

                                     ….      voracious trees beginning to …..     eat      …       themselves…

                                                           (propelled into darkness)
…tormenting the sea….

                                                …    maybe the waves are too timid…

Trees with cigarettes put out on them

             their nakedness causing them… 
                        ….to blush red
                                    sap rushing out everywhere

                                                (each orifice is…)

birds headed in the wrong direction..

             clouds are stingy…

….lied to us about the presence of weapons

             (about the absence)

each cloud….
                                    (… cannot distinguish one … from another…)

            … lonely without the sky…

                                    Longing for trees consumes us

                                    . . .  spending a lot of money
                                    to make up for this  Fortunately
                                    there is more money …          (than trees….)

…. fatalistic roots running deep….

Trees … needing cosmetics

                                                            to hide their flaws, the
sky needs covering up…

                      (Where did you float on in from?)
                      insignificant little trees

                      overtaken by other ones

                                                        . . .     known as progress

…feeling sorry for the clouds
                        unable to escape the tormenting sky…

                                    clouds are “disappeared” now…

Clouds which often make loud sounds (…you can …)

Clouds prevented from touching      (the ground)

 

                                    do they sometimes escape?
                                    the sky’s tyranny?

                                    (bless you, bless you . . .)!

A subspecies      of cloud…

            ( body double ) . . .

            weapons proliferating like mushrooms    after the rain

                       …the disparity between trees

“it could not be otherwise”…

                       in the arrogant clouds
                       a kind of patriarchal membrane
                       dissected cloud
                       o draconian cloud

a kind of secret handshake morphology…

                       ” . . .  gone wrong….”

mistrustful hills,

                                                        locked, no one to tell it to…

                                                        licked…

disappearing flowers

                        wayward, distant

 

 

Jane Joritz-Nakagawa’s poems appear frequently in the small presses.  Other work has been in Free VerseNew American WritingACMTinfishOne Less, and many other journals.  Originally from Illinois, she is now based in central Japan. A poetry book titled Skin Museum was published in 2006 in Japan by Avant Books (Tokyo). Email is welcome at janenakagawa@yahoo.com.

 

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