1. Water Locked away inside me, I wonder how it is That memories float to the top with waves, Onto shores, half - buried and becoming Like time measures against the clock. My mind, An empty void of Blank pages on a dream book that recalls... Stormy rams, monsoon Through a woven grass window. Burnt roses turn to soot after water drowns the fire And now nightfall as I lie awake. Following endless Clouds smoking across the glass moon. Cooked stones in the oven warm our bare feet While we drift closer to the spirit world. To ancestors Through the crackling roof and metallic crumbling. Their ritual dust of rose petals withering fading away Nothing, Only distant chanting of the Sutra. 2. Moon My father shirtless in pants, forn at the knees, Praying, grips his dark thighs as he carries me On giant shoulders. Or is it a dream? I'm not sure, But I rest in the shade of leaves, Staring into the bird's eye At the center of that sacred fig. Under the evening Humidity. We climb over barbed wire and sneak Pass machine gun nests surrounding this land of sugar palms. My lips rouge when I bite my teeth. Tasting dew As sweet as honey - suckle at dusk, smell of candied Plums skewered on bamboo picks. High above the stagnant forest, the same star - filled Sky grows silent on the now placid waters, flickering Through the low blanket of feathery white fog as I Stare down the sky turning from dark to morning Blue. Behind my face, the starlight - dwindles Like flames of blown out candles I will never light again. ***