USA

Travelogue

My shadow passed along an indiscreet path
darkening the deep green, carpeting the land.
Before me, souls of dead children knurled
on a tree rooted into a rocky incline. A black dog
scratched at it’s skin, chewing, growling, whimpering.
It casts a dead glare, one eye, eternal
thru me like a piano wire pulled against flesh.
The voices, a mad chorus, spinning my vision
a child with no eyes, hands reaching, blood
staining me, and I, I in a dark hole

dead stare

beneath.

The sun, bleeding down coldness
as echoes of your silent anger reverberate
in my black mind, I cannot ignore
the time we spent, the distance between us.
The ivory keys of piano notes mingling
with the song of lost boys, of girls
quieted by stolen virtue, you know
you remember, you try to caress understanding
into my skin, lean into me your history.

My skinny arms

could not hold, the enormity of You.

Your long black hair curtained around my face,
my eyes faded shut as you blew warm breath
on my face, hot kisses of want, of need
but my hands, clumsy in their clutching
and coarse words tumbling out, silenced

a falsetto, high and clear

thousands, sons, daughters, revealed
by the mist pealing back while a black dog
drew blood from a half gnawed trunk

leaves falling
as I cried, wailed to the empty
not one gentle hand, I wish
you to wipe the tears and say
your name on my lips.
silence

only silence.

© Copyright, 03/06, Jae Ming Jue.

Rain in Los Angeles

Tears of heaven pour
down my body oversaturating
clothes long since expired.

A frozen heartbeat, red
piercing the sodium yellow air
held me fast to this corner.

My flesh pushed down by the hours
did little to break the cold shivers
caressing the marrow of my loneliness.

Neither did the change to green provide me suture
as I cross the wet asphalt, a shadowy reflection
of a thousand angels crying.

I tread quickly on
piss-stained sidewalks glimpsed
in stark blue flashes of an angry sky of ash.

A pair of black cats cut my stride.
Rain continued to prick my flesh
as I stared back at them.

Not a gentle hand
to sweep aside my matted hair
that I may see her.

I trick myself. Alone I leap over staring eyes.

Up concrete steps, thru a heavy door.
I open my mailbox.
Bills and the like.
Up more steps, two at a time,
down a hall, unlock my door...

Neighbors across the hall
in rhythmic pleasure
punctuated by girlish giggles.

I lay myself down on cold solitude.
Wrapping myself tightly in dirty sheets
with the dark, darker than before.
The blinds whispering softly.

And I stare.

© Copyright, 10/03, Jae Ming Jue.

My Grandfather Alone

In my life,
a jagged edge cut long
across my hand,
I may have known love.
Love too late, brought
into focus by regret.
Leave me your memory
so that the present can die.
The future is an empty sea
I can no longer fill with my tears.
Let our progeny tend to it.
I am ready to die.

© Copyright, 10/03, Jae Ming Jue.

© All Copyright,  Jae Ming Jue.
All Rights Reserved. Printed By Permission.