Aaron Caycedo-Kimura

Aaron Caycedo-Kimura is the author of Common Grace (Beacon Press) and Ubasute (Slapering Hol Press). His honors include a MacDowell Fellowship, a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship, and a CT Office of the Arts Artist Fellowship Award. His work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, RHINO, The Cincinnati Review, and Shenandoah.

indelible (POEM)

the cracked

dogwood branch

higher than I

can mend

bends at the elbow

fingers almost

scratching

the ground

still

in the spring

its crisp

linen blooms

surprise us

like tattoos

on the arm

of a nun

A First Date (POEM)

We sipped Chianti at Don Giovanni’s 

on West 44th. It took me six months 

to ask her out, ten years after I moved 

to New York City for grad school.

Ever wonder what would’ve been 

if you had chosen another city? 

Another school? Restaurant? 

People who’ve heard this story 

roll their eyes when I tell them 

it was Don Giovanni’s. “I’m leaving 

in three months for a job in Hartford,” 

she said. “Congratulations,” I replied, 

hiding disappointment behind my menu. 

All around us, opera singers—

Caruso, Sills, Callas, Pavarotti—

watched from their picture frames, 

as the red candle flickered to La bohème 

piped in through small black speakers. 

“We have an important decision to make,” 

I said. “The garlic bread here is strong. 

Either we both have some or neither 

of us should.” What stale alternate universe 

would have blooped forth had my wife and I 

not shared the crunch of that pungent bread?