Marlin M. Jenkins

Pokédex Entry #468: Togekiss

IT SHARES MANY BLESSINGS WITH PEOPLE WHO RESPECT ONE ANOTHER’S RIGHTS AND AVOID NEEDLESS STRIFE.

IT WILL NEVER APPEAR WHERE THERE IS STRIFE. ITS SIGHTINGS HAVE BECOME RARE RECENTLY.

we haven’t seen a togekiss since the invention 
of the gun, no the knife. no,
it was the first time a man used a stick, its end sharpened
to creature-killing point, to meet the heart
of another man. maybe it was before we turned
even hydrogen to weapon. no, we haven’t seen
a togekiss since the bridge lined with bodies,
their bones broken under the hooves 
of horses. we haven’t seen a togekiss
since a man demanded spice, demanded his faith
inflicted on the faith of others, demanded access
to the land, traveled over seas to enact these desires. even before
then, did we see a togekiss before
the first circle of men reaching to grab stones,
using the products of the good earth
to purge life from a shamed body? before
a brother shed a brother’s blood in a field? before
a man blamed a woman for swallowing the flesh
of corrupted fruit? i’m beginning to think they are only myth, 
that the creature remains stuck barely 
hatched from its egg, small new wings
barely able to develop, hovering low over a cursed ground,
holding a blessing until, with no one to bless,
it withers back to embryo, pulls the shards
of egg back together and sighs, and hides, and sleeps.

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Marlin M. Jenkins was born and raised in Detroit and is the author of the poetry chapbook Capable Monsters (Bull City, 2020). A graduate of the University of Michigan’s MFA in poetry, his work has found homes with Indiana Review, The Rumpus, Waxwing, and Iowa Review, among others. You can find him online at marlinmjenkins.com.