origami

sheets of rain crisply bend over
crumpled by northern breaths and curved around
buddhist temples, curtained by grace pushing
devotees and tourists alike away
scurrying into the dark, their hopes
sitting on the steps where wafts of incense cannot
be quashed by heavy water

where the skyline meets the bustle
a brim of white bubbles covers
the ground, impermeable by the shower
surly salary men surlying
as they stand en-queue for the cheapest umbrella
despite their otherwise comfortable pocket predicament.

at the station, drizzled with inconvenience
high schoolers in their stiff collars with their school girls
prancing about in short skirts unphazed by the
effectively cold conditions burst through
train doors where steamed seats keep tourists and businessmen warm
the only time when grandmothers could care less
who they sit next to, despite their look, their talk
their unreasonably different way of dress
she can find other things to complain about
but it is cold and sheeting

the stones magician

He looked around the room and down again at his desk. The clock on the wall read a few past midnight and he turned his head back toward the pouch sitting on a stack of essays he had received back from his professors. Standing up, he checked the door twice to see if it was locked. It was, and he returned back to his chair at the desk.

He pulled open the pouch and poured its contents onto the sheets of paper. Seventeen small stones of varying color and shape, each etched with a different symbol lay quiet. Taking a white stone marked with a circle in his hand, he made a motion and spoke a word and the stones on his desk spun slowly in place. He put the white stone in with the rest and spoke another word.

The stones raised off the table and the papers a few inches in the air and dangled for a second before rearranging themselves. With another word, they rearranged themselves in a manner much like a mobile, with the white stone spinning like a coin in the very center.

Speaking another word, he made a gesture with two fingers and snapped. The stones moved again in the air, until they lined up in a square. "Show him to me," he commanded the air as he snapped his fingers again.

The air inside the square rippled and he made a face at what he saw. He pulled the white stone from the air and the other pebbles fell to the desk.