Five drunken manifestatios of Zhong Kui

Phi Kappa Phi Forum, Summer 2002 by Sundahl, Daniel James

- mid to late 20th century

Look now, the ripe jungle invites the eye, Greens furious with shock, scarlet blossom Of hemorrhage, the snowy egret roosting In the spare ribs of that dead river tree. Why does my wife slouch in boredom?

The owner of the commissary says Pay your account! Pay!! Pay!! Pay! he writes in bright mangled words. My mother, in her old age, sits and waves her toes, Her square slab of unreflective face living now With no meaning. Luck, she clucks, luck, luck.

A spirit sways, hunched like a cat above the gate. My daughter brings me lemon wedges, ice for my drink, Parsnips, beef on a blue plate, an ounce of tobacco. There's a strongbox hidden in the closet, I whisper; Let it be a mystery rising behind you in the wind.

The bald heads of two Buddhist priests are seen. My window looks out over the cherry trees. Desire is a disease, Zhu Guaglie writes, Only God Can grant your wish to live. A pig roots cabbage; I rise to go and latch the back door by myself.

My son performs ritual music on a shell trumpet. My daughter brings me a steamer of rice, an egg, Inside of which a fetal bird. I taste the beginnings Of bone, the potential heart. From the hayfield, Grassland plovers rise, flying inside their own hearts.

Daniel James Sundahl is Russell Amos Kirk Professor in English and American Studies at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan, where he has taught for eighteen years. He has published numerous articles, book reviews, and poems nationally and internationally. He is the author of three books, most recently The Small Logics, published by Mellon Poetry Press.