Lawrence Ypil (b. 1978)
SELECTED POEMS
The Experiment of the Tropics
As a nest among the trees As a garden among the bigger garden of sea
Mountain View As a wish that were drawn to scale
So the idea became foldable a mere scaffold
Discarded For that long-lasting thing
That revivalist thing style which was as the master
carpenter implied went beyond Road Port
Nut Bolt Wharf A nail
In a railroad port A pipe
that opened and closed
The central portico The color and the texture of
A solid collonade of Inday’s silence
which was her sense of water flowing across the experiment
that was the tropics A river bank made private
A theater of night guards A soda parlor
Of that foreign good whisky tractor
red tin can with the picture of a scarab and a quaker oat
Acquisition That American thing
The good old good
Cheese and grape
There was a tennis court in the club where you hit a ball
and nothing returned
We munched on its brandy biscuit.
We ordered two of it.
by Lawrence Ypil
from The Experiment of the Tropics (2019)
