my pious & open eyes
Jason Emde
Content Warning: death
It’s furious
Japanese summer
now, Stan, & Keyaki-dori
is a flowing uprush
of Gifu elm green reflected
in the puddles left by
yesterday’s typhoon. Joe & Sasha
sweat at baseball practice
while cicadas siren all over,
calling the heat down, circular, wailing,
& old men
water the streets believing
that cools everything down.
Stayed up late last night reading
Life of Johnson & Oliver Sacks &
listening to Glenn Gould
Bach piano while Joe fell
off the couch twice in his sleep
& Sasha coughed in his &
the tone & position of Maho’s movable
body parts were perfectly
self-monitored & adjusted,
ingenious & candid, in her bed,
as were mine in mine
while everything happened in houses all
up & down our street. Oh,
Stan. Dead
so long now. See my
fond & foolish hand
held out to you,
through your death
& all this divine
average life.
Japanese summer
now, Stan, & Keyaki-dori
is a flowing uprush
of Gifu elm green reflected
in the puddles left by
yesterday’s typhoon. Joe & Sasha
sweat at baseball practice
while cicadas siren all over,
calling the heat down, circular, wailing,
& old men
water the streets believing
that cools everything down.
Stayed up late last night reading
Life of Johnson & Oliver Sacks &
listening to Glenn Gould
Bach piano while Joe fell
off the couch twice in his sleep
& Sasha coughed in his &
the tone & position of Maho’s movable
body parts were perfectly
self-monitored & adjusted,
ingenious & candid, in her bed,
as were mine in mine
while everything happened in houses all
up & down our street. Oh,
Stan. Dead
so long now. See my
fond & foolish hand
held out to you,
through your death
& all this divine
average life.
Jason Emde is a teacher, writer, undefeated amateur boxer, Prince enthusiast, and podcaster with an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. A finalist for the CBC Creative Nonfiction literary award, Jason is also the author of "My Hand’s Tired & My Heart Aches" (Kalamalka Press, 2005) and "little bit die" (Bolero Bird Press, 2023). Emde lives in Japan with his wife, Maho, and their typhoon sons, Joe and Sasha.