Eleven More American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Poetics Across North America

Garnet

98 | Eleven More American Women Poets in the 21st Century What saves me is knowing if I don’t want to write on something there is nothing else to write. This is what compels me to locate the characters in Matthew’s. viiii. the grass radicals— ix. Clearly I need the taste of plum on my hands, my chin, his lips. His. Mine. Plumb. Garnet i. X wanted to present a gift the husband would not detect as inclination. Book bag. Rhyming dictionary. Hand mirror. I copied poems from The Orchid Boat for him. ii. You are the Empress Wu Tsu-T’ien requesting her lover examine her pomegranate dress. I am as delighted as you. iii. Eating a bowl of raspberries I imagine X sucking on the beads of my garnet necklace— Kimiko Hahn | 99 iv. She began as concubine to Empress T’ai then to his son, Emperor Kai, until he replaced his Empress with her. She ruled China from that moment. After his death and into old age she kept a male harem, concubines and courtier lovers. How do you feel about this? v. nipples the color of garnet vi. You advise, why dull a sharp point? why flatten the crests? why rinse out color? why douse what the gut claims from the heart— vii. the he residing in the she viii. garnet hard as nipples— from The Narrow Road to the Interior Utica Station Dep.10:07 a.m. to N.Y. Penn Station In the cavernous station, the train delayed for over an hour, I have watched a woman tend her newborn. She is tall, ties her hair back, has light dark skin and light, maybe green, eyes. Her baby is lighter; the man who picked up the ticket and kissed them, very black. I have watched her because her baby is so quiet. And I have not heard her voice. ...