Stitched Cursives, Sumei Migration Of Flight Poem by Warren Falcon

for Tuoma


once more headlong
into lucustrine stations

none of my India-tinted prayers
gather as they once did invisibly
into the knotted hair of my Japanese
once-was-in-my-arms-alla-time
lover

two large scorpions
sumei*-stitch around his pectorals
their carapaces conjoined at the
heart so many pulsing mirrors
repelling away from each

the tails their stingers tremble
ready at his sides gripped tightly
as he impacts my uttermost
most within


once afterward
across the room
smoking

he looks kindly at me

says out of the dark-inked blue
stitched cursives of scorpions still
gleaming silver with our sweat

something about 'patterns of flight'

an artist he
notices such
things

his inked
fingers gracefully
forming an airplane-gliding
gesture in dim light toward the open


window






****

*sumei is the Japanese name for Black Ink Painting