Susan Isla Tepper has a new Novel out titled “Hair of a Fallen Angel” from Spuyten Duyvil Books, NYC. A twenty-year writer, she authored 12 published books of fiction and poetry and 5 Stage Plays. Honors include 21 Pushcart Prize Nominations, a win in the Francis Ford Copolla Zoetrope Prize for the Novel (2003), Second Place Winner in Story/South Million Writers Award and more. Her play ‘The Crooked Heart’ concerning artist Jackson Pollock premiered on October 25, 2022 at the Irish Repertory Theatre in NYC. Adapted from an earlier novel, it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Susan is a Brand Ambassador for The Galway Review. A Youtube music video for her new novel: https://youtu.be/W2HVIc4NrqY

Whole Fish/Whole Self

By Susan Isla Tepper

Tokyo = Times Square on speed
the blinding neon
I keep my sunglasses close

Shoe buying
in some swank store
I find out through giggles
the upper floor
sells the big sizes—

Softer, quieter,
the out-lying towns
still bound in old traditions:
Squatting over
the-hole-in-the-ground toilet
not quite easy
unless wearing a skirt.

Stops for lunch on the tour
repeatedly serving
a whole fish—
one eye staring
up from the plate
accusatory
unnerves me

Quick decapitation
and under the rice it goes.

Kamakura, at last—
dreamy, surreal,
nocturnal even in daylight
streaming
The Great Buddha
sitting meditation
since 13 A.D.

Standing before him
on full display, too,
Buddha and I
make a private peace.