qi and high: two poems

by Peter Bracking

 

qi
if it wasn’t so hard
to have and to hold
so intangible and so necessary
breath/air/breath
could be superfluous
to listening to
haunting honking alto
outside the atrium
in the moist air
used twice
first for life
second for music
or
are they equal

 

high
high above the Pearl River
close to the laughing
afternoon moon
you watch a single boat
ply the thick black water

and sip
you sip bai zho and it burns
each sip burns
equally

distant tinkles and musical crushes and crashes
in the aural and ocular depths
indicate local industry
glass re-transformed
dust to dust
close the window quickly

and sip
and hope for another boat
and sip
to gauge the burn

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Peter Bracking tells tall tales. Earth point: Vancouver, Canada. Words have been published by more than a dozen presses in four countries on two continents including: Maisonneuve; Ascent Aspirations; streetcake magazine; thrice fiction; Existere. The only occupation he regrets leaving is beach bum. Peter is the artistic director of Utter Stories. Self aggrandizement: http://utterstories.wordpress.com

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art by Kreso Cavlovic

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