2 poems by Sophia Terazawa

Re: Balance

 

Kabukichō, my

  red-light district

     beckons clutch

 

     Megumi

  admits J.P.

Morgan’s crunching ¥

 

for their yakuza

  thus my father

     envies her

 

     one day he

  shaves his head

then loses half his

 

finger coming home

  Ah! my mother

     yelps her rage

 

     takes meat shears

  to her language

books Otousan bought

 

from Tokyo on their

  honeymoon she

     cuts her tongue

 

     upon pink

  buds of cherry

blossoms daring him

 

to find another

  wife more gangster

     than Vietnam

 

 

 

​

 

Re: Slather

 

                 then ugh            we’re spread to chestnut

                    so shoot            I’d rather have it

                too sweet            airtight on this ship

          whizzing            dry-lipped into space

     WAIT who’s            exactly driving

                  here if            ultraviolet

       must glow            in light years, look, there

blooms some            nebulae clustered

    before            our flight path, tell me

      should I            plow us through their stars