Monthly Archives: September 2013

flew my kite today

bought that dragon kite ages ago
but only flown her half a dozen times

took a couple of tries just to remember
how to stretch out those fiery wings
all orange and red and yellow with
royal purple veins running through

the five-and-a-half foot wingspan
was wider than my armspan
never mind how only the length of
that tail about measured my height

didn’t seem so imposing at the end of
two hundred fifty feet of string though

shadow theater

the morning sun attempts
to shine through closed curtains
around silhouettes of banana leaves
their sharp shadows dancing
to the will of a restless wind

there is still a small stack
of shadow puppets in my closet
acquired on my last trip to cambodia
the cast of characters from the reamker
preah ream, neang sita, hanuman, and reap
each a foot tall creation of tanned leather
intricately cut and perforated with
knotted joints connecting delicate limbs
controlled by long bamboo sticks

made and waiting to be placed
between flame and white curtain
to act out a story through flicks
and tilts and swoops and stillness
a tale based on a poem
inspiring plays and dances and
carvings on ancient temple walls

an epic thousands of years old
but still younger than the one
playing on my curtains this morn

bequest

your specters are not mine
but they have haunted us
through the distance
and space you created
trying to protect me
to spare me these shadows
from a past life not quite gone
you have instead passed on to me
ghosts of my own