Once

Once I was a pig

but I ate myself for breakfast

            fried

then grew up into me

Once I was a seed of a sunflower

but I chewed me up and spit my hull

in the sand of the home team’s dug out

and struck out

Once I was a dream

shared by two navels sweating together

                 pressed

but then I came

Seek The Harvest

With your hands

you seek the harvest

in compost piles, pig manure, garden beds

and the handle of a hoe that leaves

calluses and blisters

In your hands

you hold the harvest of the earth

cook it in a heavenly sauce

let it fill all who will humbly receive

See you hands

become the harvest

it is now growing in you

give thanks

press the palms together

break them in your labor

giving each piece with joy

I wrote this poem for the Harvest Thanksgiving Celebration in October 2012 at the Asian Rural Institute. I read the poem as a performance during the event. I worked with a Japanese poet who was also volunteering at ARI. Tomi helped me translate my poetry into Japanese and I helped him translate his poem into English. It was a beautiful exchange of poetic and cultural fruits. 

Hunger Prayer

Needing

brute sound

peels out a chorus of pig snouts

each hair on their nostrils       quivering

three more shoulder up to the trough

knowing its time

Dark

and burning

with patience the spiders

wait

for meat to come wandering on wings

seeking slop pile gluttony

but caught

Custom

to bow

the head before a meal

but sometimes

saliva stings

so fast beneath your tongue

it is prayer enough