Kat Couch · Mar 30, 2012
10 x 10 on a brown paper bag

i imagine
the brown paper bag
to be my king

the grocery store bag
has stripes
like a racing car

to me a recycling container
to liam
a sand box

sadness
a brown paper bag
simple stuff
like our ashes

making cat toys
we cut the handles
from paper bags

if we are this stuff
I hold you
like milk

our bodies turned
to paper
filled with the neighbors’
groceries

no paper bag
likes to be wet
no whetstone dry

there is a fine dust
in this
bag of food

drinking wine
washing brushes
a few poems
tomorrow
paper bag

Copyright © 2012 Lilibug Publishing

I studied Chinese scholar painting for many years. When I read this poem again, the last stanza jumps out. It could have been, word for word, an inscription on an old high-brow Ming painting, tingzi and everything. Except for paper bag!
 
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