Poems

Hi.
Nice to meet you.
Let’s be friends.

It is the month
the thirteen-year and seventeen-year cycles synchronize.
Cicada broods XIII and XIX
co-emerge

If I knew
it was two days
I’d take your hand
and we’d run to the water.

Earth rotating like a bead
The bead orbiting a silk cord
Who is the mantra for—
Lakshmi or me?

We were all lined up in a row
along the side of the highway:

Her name is Joy.
Never a moment
my fingers couldn’t find her
in the dark.