Four Poems From Kenneth Kesner

ON MAO'S BED

remembering first
last
night binds flowers to floor
to sleep without ache
wake to sweat with jiangxi
dust just now close to ochre on flesh
to open door for breeze never rises
past victims still of
repellent coils to
molten worker screeching refusing must gather produce
rinds already yesterday seething with copper-green beetles
neighbor derides her
naked sexless adolescent part dangling in gutter stick with hand
captive to gliding plastic refuse severally retarded
past gate where one's accused rape murder
by the plainclothes
then wanes alone no way to be seen again but here
culturally erect female dismounting
bike foots cross looks down
froth spits out lands on wipes on
petal cycling again
so much gold here summer sun
out some window mountains already lies jiujiang somewhere up there
shade a house shaded not divided really a room on the west not in the west really afternoon lights
a daybed for our chairman
partitioned
tomorrow's view


PARCH

your sun how long
journeys
eager to dance patience
poverty nun
inside
grace tempting radiance
inside it all
will hers last time instead
eyes so close
alone


EVENT

… since those sounds lying
still inside beyond

that time seeks a hearing
how begins as end

that time when inscribing
passages to found

sometime
now

in flame

archic shading itself from believing same

as daylights surrender to never's past

forgotten crowds to sojourn
merely in speech
just

in shade
thinking same wanting words

exceeding harmony

surrounds


ORGY

window feels like magic
and my plane souls anywhere

stone's flight is so tragic
should I gaze there
you're in a gauze of steel

what's twice now once but more

revealing nietzsche neuralgic
you read well you feel ill
and then
you're in the mirrors' care

what's more what's worse

confess yourself
a soul
at home again alone

and then

i'll last until you first
forge reign poured by my veins


Kenneth Kesner has lived in East Asia for numerous years, and currently resides on the island of Java in the Republic of Indonesia. His poetry has appeared in The Arabesques Review, A Little Poetry, and Word Slaw.