His Two Arms

dangle,
one on each side of his body
as he stands before the refrigerator,
leans in, and pillages for food—
purple grapes, a hunk
of Swiss, Kalamata olives—
his forearms covered
with a modicum of hair,
not ape-like but manly,
each of his arms
unadorned and no-nonsense,
muscled at the biceps,
not bulging and rippling and knotted
with blue veins
like on guys who pump iron
and wear tank shirts from Gold’s Gym,
but curving and rising
like two hills bordering the campsite
where before you a feast is laid.

You Offer Lychee to Your American Friends

 

–for Belle Yang

 

In the gilded bowl your mother sent from China,
you arrange two pounds of lychee–
strawberry-red, rose-colored, amber-yellow,
all aromatic and heart-shaped,
a bowlful of edible jewels.

You place …

Seduction

Peculiar, the way it starts out small,

then swells to a big fat bottom cupped
in my hand. I wish I could love it,
but something there is about a pear

Orchids

They are hot and moist in operation, under the

         dominion of Venus, and provoke lust exceedingly.
–The British Herbal Guide, 1653

Such flowers must be used with …