Words from an old flame
Sunrise the past
The time of immortality
...
Man on foot with bike shoes
Reminds me of a woman
In bright heels
...
I will trip and fall
Through glass shower doors,
Blood and shards scatter.
...
Room smells of pinot and sex.
The human morning bangs itself.
Last night was first touch.
Rue Saint-Martin is a rage of wheels.
...
You lost me
As a friend
When you farted
In the neighboring urinal
...
How fast the sun arrives
And disappears, its arc
Belongs to yesterday
...
These days I find blood
In strange places,
Drops falling like rain
...
Enough future for us both.
You could see it looking east.
Here, take my body.
I bloom with memories of you.
...
I stroll Marsden Road in Paihia. Jungles beckon offshore. Boats float in cobalt bays as the ferry churns toward Russell. I’m addicted to snapping pictures, murdering seascapes with clicks. Memories of trips bleed on glossy paper.
A gray couple zombies by eating gelato in sugar cones, moving south for town. I photo their backsides at dusk. I’ve grown tired of marching the frontage road at night alone against traffic, as if heading into headlights reveals things hidden as a child. Sadness in my stride? Say, where’s my hotel?
...
The turtle is gone.
Part of me dies.
22 years in the tank.
Reptile whispers
...
How many dreams haunt your parking lot?
I hold my breath whenever I walk backwards,
Back to Hula-Hoops, rocking horses, and toy
Soldiers. Let umbrellas cover the sun, I’ll swim to
...
How much of what
We talk
Is not for the lover
But the father
...
A gray wing vibrates the sky
Between California and Hawaii.
Below, the ocean corrugates.
...
KIRBY WRIGHT was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a graduate of Punahou School in Honolulu and the University of California at San Diego. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Wright has been nominated for five Pushcart Prizes and is a past recipient of the Honolulu Weekly Nonfiction Award, the Jodi Stutz Memorial Prize in Poetry, the Ann Fields Poetry Prize, the Academy of American Poets Award, the Robert Browning Award for Dramatic Monologue, and Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellowships in Poetry and The Novel. BEFORE THE CITY, his first poetry collection, took First Place at the 2003 San Diego Book Awards. Wright is also the author of the companion novels PUNAHOU BLUES and MOLOKA'I NUI AHINA, both set in Hawaii. He was a Visiting Fellow at the 2009 International Writers Conference in Hong Kong, where he represented the Pacific Rim region of Hawaii and lectured with Pulitzer Prize winner Gary Snyder. He was also a Visiting Writer at the 2010 Martha's Vineyard Residency in Edgartown, Mass., the 2011 Artist in Residence at Milkwood International, Czech Republic, the 2014 Resident Scholar at the Earthskin Artist Colony in New Zealand, and the 2015 Artist in Residence at the New York Mills Cultural Center in Minnesota. His futuristic thriller, THE END, MY FRIEND, and his second poetry collection, THE WIDOW FROM LAKE BLED, were both released in 2013. He was nominated an unprecedented three times in three different categories at the 2013 San Diego Book Awards. His third poetry collection, NOTES ABOVE WATER, was published in 2014. He will be filming his first short in Hollywood in 2016.)
30 Years Between Letters
Words from an old flame
Sunrise the past
The time of immortality
When the future
Was not reduced
But expansive as ocean
At sunset
Where you embraced
In a green flash
You would never see again
And believed in fire
Beyond the sea of shadows.
My first play will appear on a New York City stage in February 2016.
First Place: Original Screenplay, ONLY THE BEST Film Awards 2022.
WIN! Won the Redwood Empire Mensa Award for Creative Nonfiction!
LOVE IS A TOUGH, EVER-HOPEFUL THING, NOT EASILY DESTROYED.
NOW IS HISTORY AS FAST AS THE MIND REMEMBERS.
FOR THE FIRST TIME I REALIZED ADULTS COULD BACK THEMSELVES INTO CORNERS SO REMOTE THAT LOVE, OR ITS MEMORY, COULD NO LONGER REACH THEM.
If you break you can learn self-repair, even when your heart is shattered.
Kirby Wright will be filming in Hollywood this September 2015.