Merchant Love

Blood speaks, Portia.
Your name throbbing in his veins
Each vessel filled with you
Even the empty space in his mouth
Waits for you.

What is this infinite repetition
Of you in him?

Blood speaks, Portia,
But what does it say?

Only leaden verses,
Heavy, heavy with him.

Soft Teeth

Soft teeth
Gnaw at the neck
Tear at the tips

Lips part, red seas
So teeth can eat
The salty sin

Oceans in
The biting tide
Lapping, lapping

The tongue, a wave
Cresting—soft teeth!
Tearing, ferociously tender,

But
Tearing at
Me

I Am Fu

I've never had many nicknames, but my mother always calls me Sarita (meaning "little Sara" in Spanish). When I was little, other variations came about: Saritonga and Sarifu. At some point, one of my family members started calling me "Sari la Fu" (Sara the Fu) or just "la Fu," and I took it as my first email address (sarilafu@yahoo.com). It was just a silly name--until now; my mom sent me the following email from China:

En chino el simbolo que significa felicidad y buena suerte se llama FU! Como Sarita FU! TQ

Mama

Translation:
"In Chinese, the symbol meaning happiness and good luck is called FU! Like Sarita FU!"

It was meant to be--written in the stars, or, rather, in Chinese ;].

A Dragon

As my parents drove away from our house on their way to the airport where they will fly to China, my mom called, Te compro un kimono? (“Shall I buy you a kimono?”).

I hesitated. Te compro un kimono? she repeated.

"If there's one you think I would like!" I answered.

My dad then called out the window, Te traigo un dragon? (“Shall I bring you a dragon?”).

"YES!" I instantly replied.

How is that a father knows precisely what his child would like?

Only Flesh

Animal throat
Carnivore spoke
the tongue always reaching
only fingers for feeling
and teeth, always teeth

Animal throat
Carnivore more
only flesh will feed
Need
Need:
only flesh, only flesh.

NOT Sparkly

To be published in Rocky's school newspaper:

Dear Editor,

Many thanks to the Rocky Mountain High School Highlighter newspaper staff for compiling a first-day issue over the summer months to welcome us all back to school. As an English teacher, I was further gratified by the promotion of the literary masterpieces we teach in our classes (the “Good (required) reads” feature).

As said teacher, however, I must make the RM Highlighter panel aware that their recommendation to “skim” The Scarlet Letter is undermining the education of students; reading a summary/review of a movie is, at best, a poor substitute for the viewing of the actual film, much less fast-forwarding through it; the same is true for books. And the recommendation to “Spark-note” Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (ironically the two shortest texts) is encouraging cheating. Yes, cheating. Consider: What would be the equivalent of “Spark-noting” a math assignment? Looking up the answers online? Certainly, not doing the work for yourself—which is cheating. Now, I’m not asserting that the feature will cause cheating, but it certainly legitimizes it, and that is galling to us as teachers and adults who also want to teach good morals. For this, I do NOT thank you.

My hope is that you—as ethical journalists—simply did not realize the implications of your rating system. I support the freedom of your press, but please do not use it to press others into even the most seemingly minor acts of wrongdoing. (And this isn’t minor.)

-Ms. C, Language Arts teacher