Kirby Wright

The Fool I take my face to bedAfter midnight.Marilyn, the PersianWith the beauty mark,Camps between my legs.Hot tea sweatsOn the nightstand.The tarot readerRevealed the Fool, saidI wasted my life.I’m as old as the roof.Please refurbish my years,Make me young againTo skateboard figure 8sAnd lick mint ice creamOff the girl-next-door’s belly.I tell Marilyn that,At sunrise,I’ll find the shovelAnd dig for goldJust below the swings. Hunk of Moon I will trip and fallThrough glass shower doors,Blood and shards everywhere. Two of the shardsBounce in the toilet.A third finds the sink. The drain washesMore and more of me awayUnder the spurting shower. I will survive the stitchesAnd see a womanStanding in the doorway, Hands on swollen hips.She is my woman, I think.Her eyes become a path To the dangerous present.A baby cries in her womb.I hunger from losing blood. She slices a hunk of moon,Serves it on a blue plateSoon after midnight. Outside the Boulangerie Man on foot with bike shoesReminds me of a womanIn bright heels Negotiating cobblestones.I remember motherWalking the plank Down the hall,Stilettos clicking towardThe master bedroom. There were billsOwed to the master,Bills paid in flesh After the curtains were drawn,The AC fired up,And the door locked. The man with bike shoesWobbles a pathStrewn with white petals. My mother weptWhen the door swung openAnd the AC quit blowing. The aroma of baking breadDrifts from the boulangerie.The bike man wolfs a croissant. Mothers stroller byDiscussing the weightsOf their babies. 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 three Best of The Webs. Wright is a past recipient of the Ann Fields Poetry Prize, the Academy of American Poets Award, the Browning Society Award for Dramatic Monologue, and Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellowships in Poetry and The Novel. BEFORE THE CITY, his first book of poetry, 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. He was the 2011 Artist in Residence at Milkwood International, Czech Republic. THE WIDOW FROM LAKE BLED, his second collection of poetry, was published in 2013, along with two works of speculative fiction: THE END, MY FRIEND (novel) and SQUARE DANCING AT THE ASYLUM (flash fiction collection).