Routes to My Heart
Carrie Chang
Circumambulatory routes
About the hood, where
Daisies thrive, in olden times
Of sometimes soot, and walks
Will take you this way and that,
Past shitzu trails, and the oyster cat,
You’ll see four-leaf clovers, & a journeyman’s hat.
The runners! The runners! Like sun-bummers! & the caltropa
Like a witness to this hand, which withers
With time in the open air where a sproggle of geese
Honk their solitary tune; zen-tunes
Of infinity grace, and the tallest pine tree
Which faced east like a green dystopian
World of forgotten letters, alpha-weather
On the grey runny lines of strange words
Conjured up from dreams
In blue sheba bathtubs, and high-chairs ,
Emerald toques and brambleberry
-Scented tennis shoes
Which shingle against
The bronze q-mud and wont
For nothing, nothing
Being regal and demented
As a lonesome fish,
Fish the sub-zero efforts
Of a people clothed
In silk and leather,
Seeing that summer-time
Is sometimes
Just a feather
Carrie Chang is the self-published author of I Dream of Chinese Genie, Muthay, Two Shades of Regret, Laundromat and Fairytale Origami. She resides in the Bay Area, enjoys the taste of ornamental jellyfish and curried mah-poh tofu, and is the editor of this fine journal, which is in its fifth year.