Yvette Thomas

Little Cat's Verse Armada

1. Little cat, koneko was the name,
my first high school uni-directional crush
called me. I might have accepted that
and his broken-necked carnations, had I known what was coming.

2. I could never be firm
with him. He'd always pick up
on my infrared blushes and next school year
like spring, come roaring back with more and more sad flowers.

3. Here is where I thought I made my clever escape, by sea.

4.  I'll take my love anywhere I can get it, and in any guise. Love preceded
by latex, love preceded by the needle and the mask. A panel and a consortium
of love. Venomous love, off by a single molecule.

5. The origin of kamikaze isn't the Japanese pilots who smashed their planes
into aircraft carriers. It's the storm that swallowed an entire Chinese fleet,
so mysterious it could have only been divine.

    No evidence remains that it ever happened.