Mythos

The fibre-optic cable was seared. Across

An ocean sound was compromised—

Static fatigue, sonic boom, nerve-scratch.

The body was chalked and perforated, slugs

Spent, brass casements on the road.

Eva’s paws bloodied the blinds.

It’s the essential story: Men who

Go too far then bore you in a bar

About stories in extremis, those who barely

Made it—heart-blown, arthritic, brokedown.

The republic is a mythos of

Clowns and self-pityers

Too-muchness, rock ‘n’ roll as verb.

To chase war, shoot bottles, brine in sauce

Fuck your brains out

(is that desirable, even?

I have nothing interesting to say about this.

Richard Oyama is a poet and a writer whose poems, stories and essays have appeared in Premonitions: The Kaya Anthology of New Asian North American Poetry, The Nuyorasian Anthology, Breaking Silence, Dissident Song, A Gift of Tongues, About Place, Konch Magazine, Pirene’s Fountain, Tribes, Malpais Review, Anak Sastra, Buddhist Poetry Review and other literary journals. The Country They Know (Neuma Books 2005) is his first collection of poetry. He has a M.A. in English: Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Oyama taught at California College of Arts in Oakland, University of California at Berkeley and University of New Mexico. His first novel in a trilogy, A Riot Goin’ On, is forthcoming.