Kokeshi

I am the gaijin

on the outside looking in,

 

you, intrigued by me,

see what you want to see:

 

a tall nose, a little face, a doll

to look at, but never embrace,

 

a doll you’d carve

as a kokeshi.

 

Against a drop of gold

I’d stand out,

 

wooden

and fixed in glass,

 

never to become

your world.

 

You’d box

my flamboyancy,

 

stare at me

all day:

 

your international

accessory.

 

(‘Kokeshi’ was previously published in Snakeskin, April 2018.)

Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana came to writing poetry last year, although she recited poetry from age five, pursuing Speech and Drama training, with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. This year, she was shortlisted for the Fish Poetry Prize 2018. Her poems have appeared in Snakeskin, Typishly and Eunoia Review and in print in Silver Needle Press. In March 2019, she will read her poems at the annual AWP conference, in Oregon.