FIVE POEMS
Beggars and Choosers “Ah Carl, while you are not safe, I am not safe.” —Ginsberg I admit that I don’t really know how the internet worksor the economy and when the newspaper saysthat the body of government is consolidating debtto make room for more credit, it sounds like a divorceor like when in-laws move in, this “making room,”the language of spatial necessity escaping me.I’m learning a lot about lungs in the pandemic:glass opacity, x-rays of snow, organs embracinglike adjacent continents in a bad winter. Mutual downfall.When I lived in Shanghai, I performed a ritual of waterto ward off a hoax or a curse or the dead of heart.I needed an amulet and bought an expensive piece of jadebecause I was in China and I was desperateand unimaginative. It was heavy, easily chipped.I…