- AN APPLICATION FORM / BURNING HAIBUN FOR REINCARNATION
SECTION A
1. My mother carried a [blackhole / full moon] in her body.
2. I was like a [dagger / pit] in my Father’s throat.
3. I was like a [meteorite / moonlight] that cratered his songs.
4. Daylight [breathed / pressed] down on her stomach,
5. always searching but never finding the scraps of [hope / darkness] it needed to survive.
6. The crescent on [her / my father’s] fingers waned because
7. she chewed on what little [quarter / half] moons there were to chew
8. —a stronger bond with a [child /god] is made that way,
9. as a way of sacrificing [flesh / bones] and feeding them
10. to the [waves / clouds] that keep us both afloat.
11. Every day, she swallowed the [guts / heart / brain] of sows and chewed on the [guts / heart / brain] of cows.
12. She wanted me to have both [guts / heart / brain]
for under the rain, for under the rain flowers begat flowers and trees begat trees, you are everything you eat.
13. Every [promise / lie] plucked off of my father's [mouth / arm] was used
14. as [thorns /feathers] for her bed and as [down / muscle] for my body.
15. Under the mid autumn night the fabric of the sky tore open and clouds
pulled apart like [cotton / continents].
16. The slippery [moon / god] emerged out of [her stomach / the waves]
17. and she vowed to repay [eye / scar] for [eye / scar] and [tooth / blood] for [tooth / blood].
18. With her heavy breathing and screaming, she demagnetized the [ocean / room],
and I left her womb to cleave to her wound.
SECTION B
mother carried a full throat meteorite that cratered songs. her stomach needed to survive.
she chewed on —a child as a way of feeding us both
Every day, she swallowed lies
her sky tore open.
she vowed to repay scar for scar and blood for her wound.
SECTION C
mother carried me
as a way of feeding her
open wound.
