e2Â is for ethics
insomuch that the emperor penguin
defined the eel as a snake but no one cared
between the sandbank and whitewater
as we swirled our feet in the pond then dug
our heels into the mud saying it’s okay
to spend two summers talking like this
between makeshift tents and baked beans
until the quail returned to an empty nest
frantically looked around the brush
then settled into the dust and closed its eyes
to die we say to die without having to feel
regret and sorrow and anger and grief
every deteminate emotion rising and waning
like the shade from midday to evening
when the moorhen tells the magpie and mayfly
they’re lucky to be dull and colorless
the macaw already dry and tied to the fence
its feathers placed between nine sheets of
vellum paper showing the layers underneath
q is for quetzal
inasmuch as kangarewe wakes to a sullen
face of deleuze looking askance as if avoiding
the notation and annotation as if all
the bass clefs needed unlocking as provision
craig armstrong’s morning breaks a lull
to these years as the crested quetzal
makes its pilgrimage from panama
into interstate 95 where the metal
reflects its plumage and the icy green
looks down at the frozen ground as if
buried underneath history and all our
narratives were an indelible clearness
and obscurity and supreme effort of things
being hurled or dragged or wrenched
like a mountain of nests mounted on
the world tree its branches heaving
then lowering themselves to the ground
unable to fly or ask why this why now
~ Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé
Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé is an interdisciplinary artist, also working in clay. Trained in publishing at Stanford, with a theology master’s (world religions) from Harvard and fine arts master’s (creative writing) from Notre Dame, he is the recipient of the PEN American Center Shorts Prize, among many other awards. His poem ‘gÇŽn qÃng yòng shì :: impulsive and impetuous’ won The Missing Slate’s 2014 Poetry World Cup.
