Poems About Ai Ogwaga by Top Critiquers

( After Ai Ogawa )

I could hear you, breathing    
around the next curve;        
I followed, toward the turret—        
its spiraled throat carved out      
to swallow my steady ascension        
until I was nothing        
but an insect, s p i n n i n g          
without one of its wings—        
clockwise. . . upward;        
each turn identical—        
stone-walled scenery        
around a columned spine        
of ribbed-steps        
until I reached its ingress.          
        ...

now that you are gone…
 
 
..may I for once unfossiliferously  
rewind unto those dungeons of  
doggoned hollows  
 
... all that has but sacrilegiously been  
the lifeline currency coinage that you count  
upon dearly in its clattering ~ clink clank  
corroboree of haphazard(ous) materialistic  
maniacal gluttonies until endless nights those  
never ripens to the dawns of a simple touch...  
 
 
if not to the core of  l o v e, awaiting in gracious  
bridal vain to be at the least gazed...

I still remember that warm summer night,
The humidity doesn’t let you sleep,
Quick two-minute showers help but
Before you know it, you’re sweating again.
Drinking water also works
But getting up in the middle of the night
To use the bathroom,
For an eight-year-old boy, it’s scary.

The roof laminates are thin,
And when it rains it’s really loud,
You can hear everything through the house,
On quiet nights you can hear cats,
And sometimes even a mouse.
One particular night,
I got up to use the bathroom,
But before I...