Diego Isaias Hernández Méndez, Convertiendse en Characoteles / Sorcerers Changing into Their Animal Forms (detail), 2013, oil on canvas. Arte Maya Tz’utujil Collection.
Blind
I’m irritated.
I butcher a radish,
cut my finger.
Wanting blood,
I get mine.
Take the trowel—
go outside.
By their tops
you can count the potatoes
from here.
The harvest may be fair.
When you come to me at night
I snore—
_ _drive you
_ _to the other room.
I shove my blunt trowel
down in the ground,
_ _root up a potato.
Inside
I hear a worm
taking hold.
Janet Kiplinger tells us that she is currently a graduate student at San Francisco State. (updated 1975)