Burt Blume is a long-term resident of Tokyo. These poems are from his collection Evasions, published by Corycian Press in 1978.

Moonspeak

You lie in a quiet Los Angeles room
with nothing but the sound of traffic.

The moon is full again, its dumb mouth sealed.

For once you wish the sky hard & clear
like the pure depth of polished stone. Or more.

It is always the more that bothers you, wishing for
more wishes, an all night station:

The band is playing a dance tune
‘La Tortuga de la Noche’

you rise on cue, step into the night & go on.

The freeways so flawless you do 70, fogbound
through the hills of manzanita & still don’t care,

Or care out of pride alone, recalling
the ride to the desert in her squat car.

Now you leave the city for the 43rd time
thinking you are satisfied, & go on.

The night is of chrome & the white fire of magnesium,

as your lightly muffled machine
bears you into a landscape of deepest agate.

A momentary herald, tinctured
by the dust of precious metals & gasoline, you move on.

You go on as a wish,
trailing its oriental gown of light,

sifting through thicknest air,
a song of stone, a measure of moonlight…

You go on.

Sea Story

after Ibsen

The lighthouse keeper’s daughter
married long ago. With her scarf
and small luggage she has gone
from the headland, leaning on the railing
with a red-haired man.
Past the village boats
the island steamer
slipped fogbound out to sea.

She does not go among
the rocks anymore, trailing a bucket
for shellfish, stooping over chiton
and mussel till her feet bleed.
Her father’s knotted lines
have tangled in the reef.
She is gone in her one good dress.

Squalls, equinoctial storms
and the ice breaking away,
drifting out…
Penitent ships
veer from the council of rocks
where albatross preen their coarse feathers.
Blind with rum
the old man sits quietly inside.

Tired father whispers
to himself, Ellida,
turns on the great light and goes to bed.
Far in the southern coves
the lamp fishermen
are calling softly from their skiffs
as they bend to the water woonless nights.