A TAROT CARD READING FOR THE NEW YEAR
JAMES A.H. WHITE
A poem isn't about anything. Let me say that again
for y'all in the back: this poem isn't about anything
to do with my blocked food disposal or asparagus pee.
Blake's "The Tyger" isn't working Black Friday.
"One Art" isn't accusing Kevin Spacey of anything
beyond his art of losing, faster & faster. [Write it!]
I think this is about love or death—no? Why not,
because can one even exist without the other, you say.
The els are lulling & kas are driving. The cherry
blossoms are peaceful. Those Sundays are lonely.
Tell me then, what do you see in something else
like the Ten Of Swords, with its ten handles Of silver
& face-down man? What do you see in The Moon
above him, besides its distance & looming quiet?
If our perceptions are built on our experiences,
as Jane Hirshfield says, what then have you experienced
to see the gaping koi as the father who raised you
& the wind across the pond as everything & everyone
but? Tell me what the man did to deserve it.
for y'all in the back: this poem isn't about anything
to do with my blocked food disposal or asparagus pee.
Blake's "The Tyger" isn't working Black Friday.
"One Art" isn't accusing Kevin Spacey of anything
beyond his art of losing, faster & faster. [Write it!]
I think this is about love or death—no? Why not,
because can one even exist without the other, you say.
The els are lulling & kas are driving. The cherry
blossoms are peaceful. Those Sundays are lonely.
Tell me then, what do you see in something else
like the Ten Of Swords, with its ten handles Of silver
& face-down man? What do you see in The Moon
above him, besides its distance & looming quiet?
If our perceptions are built on our experiences,
as Jane Hirshfield says, what then have you experienced
to see the gaping koi as the father who raised you
& the wind across the pond as everything & everyone
but? Tell me what the man did to deserve it.
WHAT SEEMS TO BE THE BEST THING TO DO
JAMES A.H. WHITE
I'm not like other men who can pull off a cape
& bull. As if surviving another day relied simply
on flourishing an arm or pivoting at the hip. No
special skills needed no valentia no Kamehameha.
What else in my life have I taunted asks the stone
in my shoe. What else have other men done to grow
fuller beards & bigger asses I ask Google. As if the bull
isn't a bull when it enters the china shop
or putters down the highway shoulder with a moo.
Last week my father's mother passed away in her sleep,
as if living another day relied simply on waking up.
Two minutes into The Hours & just as expected I'm already crying
from no special move besides Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, & Nicole Kidman
waking up to try it all again. Two hours later & what else
can Virginia do asks the stones in her pockets.
It's not you, it's me, says one horn to another.
It's me, it's you, says the current to the river
As it charges past the grass, by the mud, through the body.
& bull. As if surviving another day relied simply
on flourishing an arm or pivoting at the hip. No
special skills needed no valentia no Kamehameha.
What else in my life have I taunted asks the stone
in my shoe. What else have other men done to grow
fuller beards & bigger asses I ask Google. As if the bull
isn't a bull when it enters the china shop
or putters down the highway shoulder with a moo.
Last week my father's mother passed away in her sleep,
as if living another day relied simply on waking up.
Two minutes into The Hours & just as expected I'm already crying
from no special move besides Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, & Nicole Kidman
waking up to try it all again. Two hours later & what else
can Virginia do asks the stones in her pockets.
It's not you, it's me, says one horn to another.
It's me, it's you, says the current to the river
As it charges past the grass, by the mud, through the body.
JAMES A.H. WHITE is the author of the chapbook hiku [pull] (Porkbelly Press, 2016). Winner of an AWP Intro Journals Project award for poetry, his work is published in--or forthcoming with--Colorado Review, Black Warrior Review, Quarterly West, Passages North, and Asian Cha, among other journals. Formerly of England and New Zealand, James is a first-generation Japanese-American immigrant. He currently teaches as an Instructor of English at Florida Atlantic University, where he received his MFA in Creative Writing as a Lawrence A. Sanders poet fellow. He lives in West Palm Beach, FL with his partner. Twitter: @jamesahwhite