American Love Song
By Lachlan Chu
For the tiger, alone in the dying field
by the backyard fence, quiet
& so still
I had almost no reason
to hate him.
On his back,
through the branches, five gashes
of moonlight.
Again & again, he spoke
without a jaw: you
are nothing, you
are nothing.
Yes, I begged for language—
for a word
that meant I was not
still a boy begging
for language.
Because here, in the dying field
with nothing else alive,
this was everything.
I was nothing.
I stood & watched the tiger:
his gorgeous eyes,
golden, sloshing in their sockets.
Two windows
where on the other side
there was a boy my age
with no symmetry,
a stone in one palm,
a world in the other.
An essay
in the double amber—you
are nothing,
you were the taste of
the pretty boy next door—you,
tiger with no jaw,
you were the mirror
& the rock—
& I’m sorry
for all your hunger
in this house
with only bread.