By Derk Otsuji
I put olives on my finger tips—and made grapes of brine.
I counted street lamps like beads of a rosary—on the cold walk home.
I drew with magic markers on the wall—and a dark forest grew.
I touched the ogre rock in the park—to ward off death another day.
I stared at the boiled egg in my lunch pail—and cured the hunger.
Caught in the mayhem of dodgeball day—I vanished altogether.
But I couldn’t stop them making comments about me.
Though I kept very still and didn’t say a word.
DERK OTSUJI is the author of The Kitchen of Small Hours (SIU Press, 2021), featured in Honolulu Magazine’s “Essential Hawaii Books You Should Read.” Recent work has appeared in 32 Poems, Southern Review, and The Threepenny Review. Otsuji can be found online at www.derekotsuji.com.
This poem originally appeared in Stonecoast Review Issue 21.
Photo by Rodrigo Pereira