Warehouse with boxes
piled high blocking
the sun
Boxes sit stacked
like empires under the
glare of fluorescent light
and I ask myself which box
I will check
African-American
Filipino
55 or older
college grad
single
married
divorced
With a box cutter I cut
through boxes
Slicing upwards and downwards
and sideways
In a fish market in Japan
a fish market in another
time zone
a man uses a long blade
to slice tuna
slicing through the gleam
of blue skin that holds
water’s calm and desperate
hue
slicing into sections
and chunks
An art handed down
through the centuries
And I slice boxes in
a warehouse, boxes the
color of my skin
Cutting away at the
boxes I have been put in
Like that man in
the fish market in Japan
Cutting towards art
(c) 2023 Tony Robles
