The Han Flow Called Me Today

(Sung to "Something Better Beginning" By The Kinks)

the Han flow called me today

put on my raincoat and went out to ride

the egret lighted the way

on a boulder waiting for a fishy fry

the fog may be lifting away

from atop the cloudy mountainside

is this the start of another heartbreaker

or something better beginning

something better beginning

something better beginning

 

adding to my Taiwan repetoire

it's feeling near as i look far and wide

plastic bottles float on the flow

doesn't make the water turn bashful or cry

across the bank of my life

lies rudeness and arrogance two-ply

is this the start of another heartbreaker

or something better beginning

something better beginning

something better beginning

 

i used to work in Brooklyn from eight to three

like an ambulance running stop signs

is there is eager class here waiting for me

or am i just killing time

 

two  turtles displaced in the Han

"they don't belong there," she said and knows why

some buddhist seeking good luck

put them there for fortune

it's really a crime

we are those turtles, i think

we  live and breathe here but don't know why

is this the start of another heartbreaker

or something better beginning

something better beginning

something better beginning

 

11-28-12 

 

 

 

 

Emerson, Emerson

again, place in my hand

the greatest of teachers' reminders

Emerson, Emerson

love me with your words 

with reminders of self reliance

just as nature, nature

makes waterfalls down man-made concrete

like waffle sculptures across the Han River

stay un-fetted

stay a seed of all and a follower of none

stay nowhere long and then move on

court the youth but be not concerned

how they feel you unnecessary

have no opinions of them

have none for those who put society above 

their natural feelings

teach them not who will not be taught

and be no model for anyone

Emerson, Emerson

words that America wasted

11-26-12

slithering out of a dirty Brooklyn cocoon

slithering out of a dirty Brooklyn cocoon
the Han River still flows strong in Taichung
stayed inside and drew the blinds in Brooklyn
with mushy carpet, toochie odors
but egrets still fly over the Han
horn-honking New York, get outta the way
while egrets alight on the boulders of the Han
know-it-all, told you so New York
as an egret catches fish in the Han
broken Sheepshead bridges, flooded Battery tunnels
but egrets sing: touch the earth, see the sun
till Brooklyn basement no longer offends my nose
mountains of Tan-zih, bold and green hum on
till the silence of a false friend haunts me no more
false pride, no more.
the yankees, gone!
derek jeter drenched  in sewerage.
Taichung drenched in sunshine.
11-24-12