Leaving Taichung Station

 

imagine the morning, if

a small crescent of a smile appeared as you turned toward the night

a coin-patch of tawny light upon the thumb print of an autumn apple

a quenelle moon of vanille française melts down the blackberry sky

a dallop of joy as a gospel honeyed into your Payuan ear

the Taiwu Ancient Taiwan Ballads on the shoulder of the Sacred Mountain Kavulugan 

the song like a green river runs through you 

you have lived millennials word by word

then you became today or yesterday or a decade ago

I your ghost bride and we a ghost marriage, 冥婚

and the day stopped

everything but love a cessation

but now we return, again

I your living groom, a brother or song

a hymn hung in the wind, raked up for burning

as the air rekindles everything lost

October rebirthing Spring that awaits the warming sun on the horizon

remember that in your grief 

golden amid the bruising, imagine the morning then

if even now

if even now

for Wan.-lin and Louise Glück