Five Points, Vol. 5 No. 1
Fall 2000From Ha Jin, “I only write about failure. I never write about success. I never write about important people. I never write about the brighter side.”
Sample Content
James Rioux
Feet
For the fetishist each one’s a woman
In grotesque miniature. The arch
From the ball to the heel
An hourglass curve of a hip,
The five toes a row
Of breasts in varying sizes.
And when he comes to them
Across the floor, say, on his knees
The woman thinks she has him—
Her towering image
Reduced, though, to a manageable copy
Of the unmanageable.
In the same way I imagine Christ
At the Last Supper
Seated before His disciples,
The unknowable reduced to a body
And then to bread and wine.
How after dinner they rose
And laid their sandals aside,
How He cleansed each one,
Taking their rough soles
Into His hands.