Tomokii

‘I need you to be early’
The microphone whizzes
Oriental eyebrows spring-dancing
Time-sensitive like your data
Probably significant, probably…
Is that blush a tinge of sakura,
Bold Confucian brushstrokes splayed
Upon a too yellow face?

I turn, like sumo, layers of carpet dragging,
Turnstiled, to uncover common history
Drawn through the stomach, up, this
Liquid memory, straining into vapors
That featherstroke the moment
Slightly nudging, gentle
authoritarian. The patriach plays geisha,
Now mild now coquette, still binding.

Face, caned into a grimace.
Courtesy’s not normal, requiring
A few degrees of imbalance –yours? Or
Mine. Your back is bamboo and I
Willowy. Gomendasai sensei.
I think of winter, come too early,
And then the bend, and inevitable snap
Of a twig broken early morning.