k i i k a r a k i - k a w a g u c h i

k i i k a r a k i - k a w a g u c h i

The pieces here are dedicated to the writer and teacher, Claudia Monpere McIsaac.

all day the hogg…

i don't think you get to keep it


	all day the hogg	the hogg watches the herbs	being hacked down and tied
	watches the herbs down	being the hogg hacked	hogg watches all day tied herbs
	being hacked tied all day	down all day all day all day	hogg herbs being tied being hacked
	the hogg being tied hogg hacked	tied hogg hacked hogg all herbs	watches all watches the hogg all day
	the day hogg watches all hacked	tied all day tied down	hogg day herbs being tied down
	tied being hacked all day down hogg	hacked day hacked all hacked	hogg the hogg watches hogg watches hacked
	down day all being	down all day hogg down tied herbs	herbs hacked all the hogg being hogg
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i don't think you get to keep it
	I've never known a love That traded me delight For any less than ten times The days of trouble and defeat Or a love I thought was pure That didn't make me starve myself And beat myself to keep it I don't think you get to keep it You only get to borrow The best things especially a miracle I don't know if love ever Can be truly achieved Some things you see Them only a minute Then they demand Your continual pursuit I don't see this really As about your happiness I say you don't get to know this thing So you can live in a space of newness And happiness all your years I say this really Is about loss and impossibility I think this lifetime cannot help But extend beyond the people And the geographies we care for When you have confronted The impossibility of living without them When you have loved someone so feverishly Every molecule of you was dying And you touched the only part Of another person that was infinite And it was their dying You remember you never Can truly lose anything There is a ghost quantity that remains There is this twin existence that moves over I think it's worth saying Most of us have known ten times the suffering As we have delight But there is ten times this life Beyond suffering or delight There is love that doesn't compromise Itself to our groping for its definition Isn't that really worth All our trouble and defeat Isn't that really the better miracle
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KIIK A.K. earned a MA from UC Davis where his poetics thesis was titled "THE JOY OF HUMAN SACRIFICE" and a MFA from UC San Diego where his collection of counter-internment narratives was titled EVERYDAY COLONIALISM. He also holds degrees from UC Berkeley and Santa Clara University. He is currently at work on a book of poems titled HOGG BOOK. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in iO, Washington Square, Action Yes, CutBank and alice blue review. in issue eighteen

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