Kintsugi
By Arthur Sze
He slips on ice near a mailbox —
no gemsbok leaps across the road —
a singer tapped an eagle feather on his shoulders —
women washed indigo-dyed yarn in this river, but today gallium and germanium particles are washed downstream —
once they dynamited dikes to slow advancing troops —
picking psilocybin mushrooms and hearing cowbells in the mist —
as a child, he was tied to a sheep and escaped marauding soldiers —
an apple blossom opens to five petals —
as he hikes up a switchback, he remembers undressing her —
from the train window, he saw they were on ladders cutting fruit off cacti —
in the desert, a crater of radioactive glass —
assembling shards, he starts to repair a gray bowl with gold lacquer —
they ate psilocybin mushrooms, gazed at the pond, undressed —
hunting a turkey in the brush, he stops —
from the ponderosa pines: whoo-ah, whoo whoo whoo —