
– after Cathy Song
First published by The Tokyo Poetry Journal
Catalog of wounds
encrusted with crystal
why cling
to what shatters and cuts us?
Catalog of mirrors
fixed on roads untrodden,
why not focus
on courses we follow?
Catalog of blunders
and botched checkmates,
why keep score
after games end?
Catalog of loads
borne by proxy,
why carry
burdens that crush us?
Catalog of rogue waves
that could befall us,
why not paddle
the pond that is before us?
Catalog of shadows
cast on narrow walls,
why not see
light flows through fissures?