INA CARIÑO
Perishable
I packed the dying
treasures in a cardboard box
Weekly poems, selected by the editors. Featuring new work as well as poems from our rich archives.
I packed the dying
treasures in a cardboard box
The Earth is cloud marbled, inscribed with sea.
Orion, big unbothered company.
Ice is time’s way
to handcuff water.
Even when I disappear
I does not disappear.
In mere days
the maggots hatch and hurry out on sheer wings
to keep you afloat
a feeling that only
works to sharpen the cold
The summer was ending.
The dark was still young—
I minded you like I mind dark shapes darting peripheral after I leave a room.
the way it wants rain
and the rain wants a mouth