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Sleetmagazine.com

Volume 2 Number 2 • Fall - Winter 2010-2011

Todd Pederson

Seaport: Reading Manga
Magnolia Trees in Rain

Seaport: Reading Manga

beginning my day

with lovestories with

fancy coffee

over ice

with this boy this girl

their faces

& thighs pressed

in the flat

gather

of my japanese

paperback

throwing little

shadows little

implications

on the small

e that follows

me

on seaport un

-zipping on distant

yachts

unfastened

from the blue

ocean

& south street here

& for another

hour—i'm late again

for biochem

at tokyo

university i'm

dumb i'm

into two undergrads

& their so

-wide eyes

drawn like

me

in b&w

Magnolia Trees in Rain

Undone by their own

expressions, they lean with the storm like wet

lovers brushing their hair

across the breast of the street.

The rain

plays sideways

with signposts & taxis—lips hard

upon metal & skin, wide

blossoms & the untimid

cataract of this

summer night. Handsome

in their fallen petals,

one couple steps away

from underneath

these branches

& descends

the overrun curb —

their own embankments swollen,

they do not blush.

Todd Pederson is pursuing an MFA degree at Hamline University. His recent work is featured in the mnLit What Light program (www.mnartists.org), and What Light, an anthology that collects the work of 27 Minnesota poets. His criticism appears in online editions of the Rain Taxi Review of Books (www.raintaxi.com/online). Todd lives in Eden Prairie, Minnesota with his wife and two children, whom he thanks for their patience and inspiration.

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