Lek Borja

The Senses Center

1. in the waiting room

pulse --- the absorbed within picture frames ---she comes ---
her walk is liquid: going ---

my eyes --- not like hers --- electrically colored --- all impulses --- heightened senses
like a million raging selves. be still---be one.
her walk is liquid: going, and silent. i am chiseled by the sight ---
still --- one.
i sprawl.
my hard insides move to the edge of softness --- kiddy --- white.

2. a special attraction

the need—the quiet ache

to fill a space from asphyxiation

from her causal smile

is there.

this moment, i am

but lung

3. kiss as aim: objective to action

and her  moving ---
lips --- part ---our tongues
dart out ---
the willful --- we ---

the moment ---
the patient ---

arrows --- flew ---
in time's exact
measure --- head against head

4. the operation, & following directions from a catalog of tests on the human limits

the jaw and all
unhinging
surfaces split,
the torso opened
when
someone inside
was placed—a stomach
of memory, an organ
of restraint.

• • •

open
clawing

mouth control

violent

• • •

catalogued test 3: shriek

for a month— shriek

consistently like a hacking into

limit
the human
lesson

voice

Lantern Review: A Journal of Asian American Poetry
Issue 2 | Winter 2011 | p 9-14