The Cedars of Lebanon
Brandon Shimoda
Orange fish in a square pond
Creaturely ladies raising trumpets
Bitten thread-grain Chinese tree
sheer pink
shadow of infantry
rising the surface of day
grazing names of the dead
eating halloumi, drinking black
milk to mild
she-wolf to be fresh and ready to drink
Earth water forgiving hell of earth water
Orange fish with lethargic rodent eyes
Pomegranates
The whole of the valley on fog feet
mountains
Job ascended
to leech
the bush
Trust be our writers, strangers hang
the river
stalkers in low-hanging clouds
singing five boys a girl
Are those pomegranates in the trees? Are those pomegranate trees?
Carp
concealing the colony
in the guise of a fruit shaking the mullah sun
and arms from our bodies
burning charms
lesser beings—all
red pierce
The entire landscape of the country concentrated
Into a single line
resembles a funnel chain-passage of bodies
~~~~~
Brandon Shimoda's collaborations, drawings and writings have appeared in print, online, on vinyl and on walls ... and most recently in The Bowling, with Sommer Browning (Greying Ghost Press), Lake M (Corollary Press) and The Pines Volume Six: PILE, with Phil Cordelli. He currently lives in the United States.