R. Nemo Hill
Touching The Path
Broken open mangosteens stain the table.
A fly buzzing too close to my ear startles me
then circles round returning
to the split fruits, their purple viscera
startling also.
One printed page blows off the porch, a page of newsprint.
Time to clip my toenails. Into the garden
their little half moons will fall
swept up in an hour or so by the gardener with a limp.
One dry leaf drops from the canopy.
I watch it start and stop, catching at each dull branch,
finally touching the path with a light tap.
For a moment all ten thousand suns
slip behind the only cloud.
(Petulu, Bali — 2005)
Bio
R. Nemo Hill is the author of an illustrated novel in collaboration with painter Jeanne Hedstrom, Pilgrim's Feather (Quantuck Lane Press, 2002), a narrative poem based upon a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, The Strange Music of Erich Zann (Hippocampus Press, 2004), and a chapbook, Prolegomena To An Essay On Satire (Modern Metrics, 2006). Editor of EXOT BOOKS (www.exot.typepad.com/exotbooks), his poetry and fiction have appeared in various print and online journals including Poetry, Smartish Pace, Soundzine, Big City Lit, Autumn Sky, Chimaera, Umbrella, Ambit, and American Arts Quarterly. He lives in New York City, but travels frequently to Southeast Asia. His travel blog, Elsewhere, can be accessed at www.rnemohill.typepad.com.