Chen-ou Liu Poems

the 4th tanka in the sequence, Politics/Poetics of Re-Homing


'to me, time is
...

A slim woodpecker
scurries about in the bush...
no haiku for days
...

blindfolded Justice
holding her scales and sword
in the square
row upon row of black men
...

the shape
of her absence
new moon
...

In 1544, a Portuguese ship sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it 'Ilha Formosa, ' which means "Beautiful Island."

all of a sudden...
my vision blurring
...

low tide...
can I pick up anything
she left behind
...

the last straw
in the you-pull-I-pull
relationship
with my sexting partner:
...

candlelit study
three shadows chase each other
around the wall
...

drinking alone...
I scoop the harvest moon
from the river
...

a crow's cry...
I whisper to the moon
in my mother tongue
...