Christopher Kennedy

Poem for Shang Qin

I’ve been digging my way toward you since the day I was born. I watch the lamplight outside my window turn to diamonds and think of you. A dog barks in my sleep, and I dream of you eating figs under a banyan tree. In the morning, I look at the hopeful yellow sun. I think, What is the old master doing right now? Cursing the darkness? I’m alone, looking at a painting, and I think, What would he make of all this purple? I love tomorrow because I know you’re already there, standing upside down, walking along in the future with your strange shadow, changing your name to save your life.

Author: Christopher Kennedy

Christopher Kennedy is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, Nietzsche’s Horse, Trouble with the Machine , and Encouragement for a Man Falling to His Death. His work has appeared in Grand Street, Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review, Mississippi Review, McSweeney’s and many other journals and magazines.

Plume: Issue #1 July 2011