she is under the rice
fingers poking up through the water
playing air piano
are fish allowed
to swim the paddies?
they should be
flashes of koi gold
among rich green
every hillside
a rice aquarium
with jazzy flowing
fish and rice
fit for a Sumo wrestler
who secretly yearns
to play furniture music
and wrap
her sacred curls
in airy zen piano
Richard Peabody is the author of a novella, three short story collections, and seven poetry books. He is a native Washingtonian and teaches fiction writing at Johns Hopkins University, where he received the Faculty Awards for Distinguished Professional Achievement and Teaching Excellence. He is also the Beyond the Margins Above and Beyond 2013 Award winner for his outstanding service to the Washington, D.C. literary community, and he is Eckleburg‘s Patron Saint of Indie. He is the founder and co-editor of Gargoyle Magazine and editor of twenty-one anthologies including Mondo Barbie. His collection of short stories, Blue Suburban Skies, is out from Main Street Rag Press. Read “Maraschino Cherries,” an excerpt from his collection, Speed Enforced by Aircraft (The Broadkill River Press, 2012).