By Mark Sisson

Year of the Rabbit

 by Glen Armstrong

Talented and affectionate,
you are the luckiest of all signs.

You could sit all day
in the China Jade’s red vinyl booths

collecting woo from the place mat
completely without incident.

You are younger than some and older
than others: year of the rooster, year of the cat.

The speckled shark in the fish tank
hasn’t got a year.

A student of Bakelite Buddhas,
alone with your bowl of hot and sour soup,

you dream of the younger waitress
with her long black hair tied up in chopsticks.

You anticipate the heat of her kisses
with each spoonful you slurp.

This is enough.
You eat your soup

as if no one and nothing
was ever bred for brevity or decoration.

About Glen Armstrong

Glen Armstrong holds an MFA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and teaches writing at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.  He edits a journal called Cruel Garters and was actually born in the year of the rabbit.