by Jose Luis Gutierrez
Once again our lives are being
translated into fog which,
have you seen this morning,
is a refugee crossing
over the myriad trees,
over the myriad trees,
rice paper-thin screen
hiding the nameless wars,
unspoken betrayals,
feline ode inviting sanctuary,
water’s promise
to remain shapeless in the chiseling
onslaught to come, system of locks
connecting two oceans, at last our
hands open to welcome the sky.
We speak in the plainsong
of our vanishing.
José Luis Gutiérrez is a San Francisco-based poet. His work has appeared in Eratio, Scythe, Margie, Poemeleon, DMQ, Jetfuel and is forthcoming in Caliban and Kestrel, among others. His first book of poems, A World Less Away, was published in 2016.
Hawaii Pacific Review 