Ja Cie Kocham

I love the boy with the flashbulb chest and his
lungs like flour

and he says I write poetry like romance

and I say no it's a trade just like a carpenter
or a plumber

and at night when our bodies include negative
shapes inside

the other he prays to a poem where there is no
god involved.

which is to say he gives the poem his complete
attention

which is a form of secular prayer. which is to say that I am

once in a while decorum once in a while the
poem.

yes indeed I love the boy with his lungs like
flour caking

when he sings Chrissy oh carpenter Chrissy

oh electrician Chrissy oh electricity Chrissy

and as I carve my hand into the poem on his
chest

I feel the flash leak inside my body, a gibbous
pupil inside

a yellow iris.
these lungs that crumble like flour sing

when they pray which is to say I love his
complete

attention when I hold it with care in my hand.

Christine Reilly

Archived 08/12/2011