Clément likes to do his translations and occasionally, when the mood overtakes me, I scribble scraps of poems in my many notebooks. My reading of Bruce Boston’s Dark Matters inspired a scribbling frenzy. I wrote a bunch of poems, mostly about ninjas, and I think I’ll share one today. This one was originally written on the back of a boarding pass.
Dark Parent
The ninja knows
that the shadows provide
the shelter you seek
but recoil from,
being beige,
perhaps pastel,
a target, actually …
knows that you will break cover
because “sneak”
and “lurk” are
bad words
to you.
You will streak
into the sunlight
where the brilliance
will halo your
dark form
because you are heavy and slow
and human
and do not love the void—
your dark parent—
the only one
that can shield you.
—Erin Orison, DEAD LOVE/the Daily Slice
Photo by Lowry McFerrin, courtesy of Lowry McFerrin