Sonnets to Morpheus ["I know kung fu"]
By John Beer
“I know kung fu.” It won’t bring back the world.
5:15 a.m.: I wake from another dream,
the same as every dream. A man builds a ship
in my chest. Each of the sailors
carries by her breast a picture of her sister.
The ship is not the image of a ship.
Beyond its sails there are no stars.
The water is only water because it’s black.
5:15 a.m. Perhaps you’ve seen me
practicing my moves in the empty prison yard
and wondered whether you were the dreamer
conjuring me into existence from the bare
desire to caress a phantom ship
and my death the death of your desire.
Copyright Credit: John Beer, "Sonnets to Morpheus [”I know kung fu.”]" from The Waste Land and Other Poems. Copyright © 2010 by John Beer. Reprinted by permission of Canarium Books.
Source: The Waste Land and Other Poems (Canarium Books, 2010)