CHRYSANTHEMUM / FIVE WILLOWS LITERARY REVIEW is an Online literary review of the Chrysanthemum Literary Society for selected works that fit the spirit of Mr. Five Willows. Send your work via email to koonwoon@gmail.com both in the body of the email and as an attached Word file. Response time is immediate to 2 weeks. Thank you. All donations are tax-deductible.
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keeping things straight
KEEPING SOULS IN A LEDGER
In
the colorful blur of St. Mary’s Square, a message on the clock said, “Know son
the evil and flee thence!” I had been sleepless in SF entering Grant Avenue the
entrance to Chinatown. I lugged my suitcase through the crowded street like an assassin
on a mission. Inside my suitcase is a leather-bound ledger, where I make the infinitesimal
notation of entering a soul. I made a mark “+” if the soul merits recycling and
a mark of “-,” if it should be returned to the fires of Hell.
Mother,
my eyes are pierced by the sunrise between two corporate buildings, and my legs
grow weak.
Mother,
if I transmigrate, how would you know me if I came as to your door as a puppy?
In
the matter of mothers, schizophrenia is allowed. And in the matter of souls
kept in a ledger with their merits and demerits the world keeps a record of harm
done. I am sworn as a notary, and my commission expires when the seas consume
the land. When all is said and done, I was a good clerk in the ethereal realm.
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