PETALS,

white, fallen

yet rising, on the walls 

of a red room.

*

Ginger strips

on 

the tongue.

*

Asking

for what is

wanted.

*

The clang of a cowbell

in an alley

somewhere.

*

Multiplication tables

in the very fingers

that work chop sticks.

*

An argo

of what is said

and not said.

*

Ancestral

need:

belonging.

*

If only

the waitress

would smile.

*

The dreaming

is what really feeds

the orphans.