To board the train without suspicion
I told the man I was Chinese
can you believe it?
You never have to lie
to survive, now do you?
So what will you do
with your curious pen
and your questions like daggers
slicingbthrough the ripe heat
of the merciless summer,
tearing the grapes from the vine
till they drop like a satchel
of dead knuckles on dead earth?

To begin they gave us one army blanket
and one army cot,
no doors on the bathroom stalls
and no stoves for heat
only mouthfuls of dust
and the sight of a mountain
in the barbed distance
where the wind waited like a tired sniper.Denying what you love
is like sanding your heart with a pumice stone
and the stone is on fire
and there is No Speaking Allowed Please
and No Singing.
You’ll see it for yourself
when you go there roving
with your questions for the barracks
like a hungry ghost.