Do you remember the days when men loved other men like sons,
or the days when women gave birth in the oceans of California?

The sea children and their tea notes schooling fish songs—
they kept a bath of grapes for paint in elegant professions.

Merlin painted near the sea.

I can’t tell what men love other men like these days,
or if women still give birth in oceans of California.

I can taste this sea in blood teas and floods,
and the grapes come in smaller packages.

They’ve never met a Merlin.

The fog horse and his paladin,
who ran out of crusades, 
forgets the sea is paid for.

The insects flay me for suits.

– James Vu