/ Power Outage
1992. 12
A sudden power outage, and I’m convinced
I live in a developing nation
a nation where people read by moonlight
a nation that abolished imperial exams
a sudden power outage, and I hear
wind chimes and a cat’s footbeats upstairs
in the distance an engine stops with a thud
the battery-powered radio beside me still singing
once the power’s out, time turns back quickly:
candles light up the eateries
the fat kid gobbling on crow meat notices
crows gathering on tree limbs
and the pitch blackness before me
just like a seaswell womb
a mother hangs herself from rafters
each room its own special odor
Power Outage. I touch a slipper
but mutter: “Quit hiding, matches!”
In the candlelight, I see my own
great big wordless shadow cast upon the wall
December 1992
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