To Li Po
I am poor as a light wind. My teeth are falling out like the unseen leaves do each fall in valleys undiscovered. I have no home.
I am poor as a light wind.
My teeth are falling out
like the unseen leaves do
each fall in valleys
undiscovered.
I have no home.
Even the rats
no longer come with
their day-glow eyes
to wait for my last crumbs.
I know nothing.
The whole world
shifts under me when I
walk in search of work
a way out
of the misery that isn’t
my making.
Hospitals refuse to admit me
so diseased am I.
My last love left with
the man I used to be.
I don’t even remember anymore
what I am doing here.
But in all that
because of all that
I am happy.