Sushi Rupture

Paper cranes flit above us
on suspended fibrils of string

as we ogle the dry aquarium
with its tantalizing seabed

and listen to the master explain
why orders come in pairs,

hito kire and mi kire—
words for one slice and three—

the same as those for to kill a man
and to kill myself, respectively.

He warns two people must never clasp
the same morsel with their hashi,

as funeral bones, retrieved from ash,
pass among mourners in this fashion,

a ritual meant to dignify death
though it's life that needs prettying.

And yet how deftly he handles a blade,
our master—so unlike our awkward butchery

of these artful delicacies, as if they were
a stand-in for some greater, unfixable thing.

Michelle Moore’s poems have appeared in numerous publications, including Commonweal, Rattle, Black Dirt, and Apalachee Review. They are also the author of two poetry chapbooks: The Deepest Blue (Rager Media, 2007) and Longing for Lightness: Selected Poetry by Antonia Pozzi Translated from the Italian (Poetry Miscellany Press, 2002).