RYO YAMAGUCHI on

Barbara Guest
Parachutes, My Love, Could Carry Us Higher

I just said I didn't know
And now you are holding me
In your arms,
How kind.
Parachutes, my love, could carry us higher.
Yet around the net I am floating
Pink and pale blue fish are caught in it,
They are beautiful,
But they are not good for eating.
Parachutes, my love, could carry us higher
Than this mid-air in which we tremble,
Having exercised our arms in swimming,
Now the suspension, you say,
Is exquisite. I do not know.
There is coral below the surface,
There is sand, and berries
Like pomegranates grow.
This wide net, I am treading water
Near it, bubbles are rising and salt
Drying on my lashes, yet I am no nearer
Air than water. I am closer to you
Than land and I am in a stranger ocean
Than I wished.

Ryo Yamaguchi is the author of The Refusal of Suitors (Noemi Press, 2015). He has worked in academic and literary publishing for presses such as Wave Books and the University of Chicago Press, and was a reviewer for Harriet Books. His poems have been anthologized in The Best American Poetry 2020 and The Best Small Fictions 2020 and have appeared in journals such as the Bennington Review, Sink, and The Volta, among others. His book reviews and other critical writings can be found in outlets such as Jacket2, the Kenyon Review, and Michigan Quarterly Review. He is currently a publicist at Copper Canyon Press. You can visit him at plotsandoaths.com.