"the midwife's fisherman"

"the midwife's fisherman"
after pop culture met contemporary literature by jake kilroy.

coupled with the taste for japanese villages
and the women that pray in them,
by the sea, with white birds covering the sky
like a bridal gown, and pink flowers drifting
to the far away coasts of imperial sailors,
one western man dug his fingers into the dirt
in the most basic efforts of homesteading.
he was without thread or timber,
yet still he dug, until his hands cracked,
as if lightning had struck the plains of his palms.
he watched a woman take in ocean breaths
with severity and he could tell the salt never left her.
it absorbed into her skin and she glowed.
the vapor left her nose and her lips like a secret
and painted dragons and warriors into his eyesight.
he saw the cloudiest mountain wink behind her,
and he rubbed his eyes with dirty hands and saw truth.
he saw the laughs of kings and the wrath of generals.
he saw the bellies of concubines birthing a future.
he saw the world tearing at itself like lovers entangled.
but he could no longer see the woman by the sea,
the waves or the wind having taken her beyond,
and so his journey began.