152 Miles from Nagasaki
“Do the ghosts in America have their feet?”
my student asks.
After six months of wrestling English syntax,
a student asks this question.
I recall old houses, hometowns,
stories told late at night,
and have to tell her,
“There is no rule”
in a classroom of rules,
a country of rules,
arguments about whether
rules can change.
The ghosts in America
have long, long arms
and grasping fingers
that turn the pages of my history book.
Some of them wave flags
that I think we handed them
and are those our words repeated
three times to the mirror at midnight?
What do I tell my student
about these rules
that brought these ghosts
insupportable as ghostly feet?
Please find her interview here:
Runner-up: Christiana Sasa
The Old Flavour
the dinner
scheduled at seven
by that time
I must brush
the dusts of dead moon
off my face
dented
with your customary kisses
I must stain
my lips bold red
to hide
the marks of my words
I never said to you
and the rich colour
of the wine
must push the tears back on
my smoky waterlines
your gaze greedily
tracing the waitress’s waist-
line
getting thicker and thicker
of the spicy sauce
as you play
on your plate
with your little spoon
I cradle the soup
hot
but it scalds my
taste-buds,
numbs the dots of flesh
the bed
time arrives
we are supposed to fill
in the blanks
you are right beside me
but I am sleeping with
the sniff of the old days
smudged on the bed sheet
dry scars of memory,
wet blood of
tingling moments
rushing in my head
Top 20:
3. Colour of thirst by Fotoula Reynolds
4. one big loud thing unheard by Dean Gessie
5. There are no pianos in Hell by Steven Lebow
6. The Wrapper by Adrian Slonaker
7. Deathbed Play List by Arthur Turfa
8. I Will Fall Sick if You Photograph Me by Jhilam Chattaraj
9. Lady With A Pennywhistle by Bruce Moody
10. Looking for a Sign by Guinotte Wise
11. Mary, Mary, quite contrary by Denise O’Hagan
12. Mucking Out the Stalls by Sarah Carey
13. Ocracoke Night Magic by Ann Christine Tabaka
14. One Must Dance Naked by Alfred K. LaMotte
15. Quilting Sessions by Wesley Sims
16. Rape of the Sea by Aria Ligi
17. Shuffle Songs by Christopher M James
18. Silence - a lost art by Megha Sood
19. Tarot Trump VI: The Lovers by Wim Coleman
20. Web by Eliza Segiet
The Pangolin Review Team
