Lucas Denzler

Lucas Denzler (age 24) is a 2018 graduate of the BFA program in Creative Writing at Bowling Green State University. His poetry can be found in an upcoming issue of Prairie Margins.

夫(Fū), a Chinese Character for “Man”

Before it pinkens, the horizon is the color of a fungus
that grew in my childhood yard beneath
the utility pole I was sure my father
had planted. It could not have come from anywhere
else. He grew the Japanese maple
from a sapling, the Dutch tulips from bulbs, the German
tomatoes from seeds. A Chinese character
for “man” resembles the top of a utility pole,
crossarms outstretched, free
of trees, hanging above the street like a failed
Roman seditionist. When there is more than one
man in a sentence, are they bound
as the poles are, long stretches of aluminum
wrapped in rubber the color of ink tied
on each hand, a chain-gang of perfect
penmanship? My father is dead
now, so I cannot ask him,
but he would not have known anyway,
he did not speak Chinese,
only English and the occasional Latin at mass.