Michael Akillian: Self portrait

His entire body is a stenciled crate

in which he ships his heart

from freighter to port

through the world.

It is designed

to get through Customs;

secret compartments hold

a young girl’s embrace,

hailstones from Moosehead Lake,

gyroscopic love, discarded rules

and other compartments  of great capacity           

that echo with the thud of stamps

and labels and the cursing of workers

as the crate shudders off its pallet

towards whatever is scribbled on

the crumpled and illegible bill of la[n]ding.

This poem is part of the volume entitled "The Eating of Names", published by Ashod Press, 1983. It is reprinted here by kind permission of the author.