FOUR POEMS
Terroir: A Mapping / Jishin-no-ben 1. Wine-makers say it’s the complex flavorcreated by the singular terrain of place: the kinds of minerals in the soilfiltered through the soft pulse and coil of earthworms; the curl of fog that snakesaround blushed grapes like wisps of smoke; the taste of rain. You like how the wordevokes the trauma, the bruise, of origin. 2. Because you don’t want her to feel lonelyyou flatten yourself down to a sheet of paper thin enough to slide underneath the doorof your mother’s room so you can sit with her inside the conspiracy. Most days she locks you out:swears at you in Japanese, tells you she hates you. But some days you flatten yourself so far downyou’re able to slide back into remembered terror. 3. The way that mercury seeps into the tenderflesh of oysters and sea urchin; the…
