Jonathan Yungkans
Woolly Blue Curls
(Trichostema lanatum)
I feel less time’s fool watchingas I wander a dry hillside not
far from shore hint of salt in
sticky air the ocean defying
gravity to brood along slopes
not native to you running
fingers barely thicker than air
through all the flora it can as
though itself to remember in
some tactile way and with tears
already forming all to which it
might not return including
this shrub that could be us both
staying alive in the depths of a
quiet prayer narrow-leaved
at a bittersweet green-and-white
peace its thin-wire stems
almost garish in florescent hue
forced into light that would
blind a sun and a taste in its
veins of what the Spanish call
romero life-bitter common
as salt and time defiant despite
no water long violet blooms
which corkscrew offering cedar
and lavender floral magi
offering gifts as they maintain
a complex illusion in a simple
truth teasing a heightened
hope or despair on lighted skin
till I can taste your absence
feel the interloping waves yet
rooted separate desperate
as we turn in wind for release
we bloom and reach in fog for
what might suffice for a touch
Jonathan Yungkans is a Los-Angeles-based poet, writer, and photographer. Growing up in Gardena, California, not far from the Pacific Ocean, and at the time still predominantly Japanese-American, left him with three things—an intense love for the sea, a deep appreciation for cultures other than his own, and the outlook (and resulting questions) of an outsider aware that he didn’t quite fit into his surroundings. Subsequent years as an ESL teacher and a publications editor for a multi-cultural Christian ministry only added to the latter two of these. His works have appeared in Poet Lore, Poetry/LA, Twisted Vine Literary Journal, and other publications.
Nicholas Abanavas received his M.Ed. in Teaching At-Risk Students in 2008. He recently retired from a career in public education. He has written two books: Scissors, Cardboard & Paint: The Art of At-Risk Teaching and Lemnos: An Artist and His Island. Mr. Abanavas is an avid fan of jazz music.