"As I Read About Japan" by Michael Mingo

The wind blowsthe pages from undermy thumb, one waythen another. I'm learningabout the occupation,that malaise that hangsheavy over their citieslike helicopters, blackas the ink the childrenbrush across their textbooks.The past is renderedinvisible. The sundrifts behind the trees,setting, and the shadowsof the thinning branchesgrow blurry. I can't tellwhether they're advancingor retreating, and it's hardin these conditionsto hold the pages tight.

Michael Mingo is pursuing an M.F.A. in poetry at the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars. His work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Angle, Jersey Devil Press, Soliloquies Anthology, and Pirene's Fountain, among others.