Poetry / April 2018 (Issue 39)


Four Sijo/Stlings from Scenes, et c-

by Dan Disney

(i)

this language
      of ih-yeh-yoh-ing
            & im-nih-dah-s

where 'mal' (말)
      means both word & horse
            >>> gallops past

kitchen, orchid ('purple')
      looking on, morning parses
the night before >>> six sparrows

            passing into foliage, two crows flying out


(ii)

the fridge full
      of inscrutables >>>
            ponytail kimchi/ duck eggs (baked)/

pickled clams/ glasswort
      salt/ bee pollen/
            roasted seaweed/ Japanese apricot wine/

grain syrup/ pineapple vinegar/
      perilla oil/ wild rice/
fried glutinous crackers/ buckwheat noodles (served

            cold)/ Siberian gooseberries (fresh


(iii)

to our pot plants
      the shower's head
            / darkly displaced

a reigning god...
      to the ants
            the firefly

an edible star
      >>> mouths into smiles
we're quiet (for days

            that ringing in the ears >>> wrong number)


(iv)

two sparrows
      in same pieces of air
            or the one

crow calling
      back to itself &
            slanting forward

into different paths
      (she says, 'sure >>> I read context
well enough

            but speak it hardly at all'
 
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