Small Black Ducks With Orange Beaks

small black ducks with orange beaks
paddle up and downstream before me
white tail feathers under
seen only when flicking their rear ends
doing a bent-neck chuck berry in the stream of
milky mossy soft green Han waters
waters given up sparkling clean ambition
on its slow winding trickle to the Taiwan Strait
the inevitible pass through the last dry boulders
wide into an estuary of oily vessels
along the shallow silty shores across from mainland China
near grasslands and wastelands of migrating birds
vast lands and last lands of island flight

now let me look upstream
towards white water splashing past the taoist temple
past the morning market at the end of the river road
up into the mountains passed statues and golf course
up passed invisible carniverous gnats
passed naughty monkeys ganging up on hikers
passed beetlenut palms and evergreen trees
cooler and drier through ceder forests
and moister and denser through mossed rocks abd ferns
under the canopy of shadow and shade
the birth of Han is clean and clear there
splashing tiny trickles o'er rocks and pebbles
stoop to it and take a cool sip

2-27-13

I Could Be One of the Boys

i could be one of the boys

falling out drinking gin

with foreign female toys

but a butterfly just boxed my ear

and a candy wrapper blew by near

while i sit on the bank of the Han River

with views like stars in the Arizona sun

limited views squeezed by roads of pollution

mountains of naughty monkeys and insects

and China across the Taiwan Straits

it's nothing but sewers and watergate

 

2-16-13



i was going to bring a harmonica

i was going to bring a harmonica

i was going to play a song

but i changed my mind

i didn't want to disturb anyone

but i hear a chinese song

floating from a loud speaker somewhere

i hear a little dog barking somewhere

and they don't disturb me

they change me perhaps

i should have brought the harmonica

 i should have played a song

any song

no one would complain

it wouldn't be wrong

i came to the roof garden with sweeney-poo

i wasn't careful to unlock the door

it closed behind me and we're locked out

sweeney doesn't mind

he's washing his face

i'm writing a poem

i don't mind

someone will come up to hang out their clothes

they'll open the door and unlock it

someone will let us in

there's 16% of energy left on the laptop

there's an 'untitled folder' icon on the wallpaper

i don't know how to remove the icon

it doesn't have a purpose

it shouldn't bother me

it bothers me

the 16% bothers me ,too

what if it runs out?

what happens when it goes down to 0%?

let it go

this poem is short

give it another thought

if we don't sweat the little things

they will grow

like the baobab 

on lazy man's little planet

nip it in the bud

what if it's a beautiful flower?

can we know the difference

between good seeds and bad seeds

until it's too late

and it takes over

tend to it young or let it grow

okay let it go

(no one's coming up)

should i run to the open door when it does?

even sweeney lets it go

until the door opens

and remember i have a cell phone

and remember there's an intercom

no one's coming

no one's calling

remain calm

but an open door is exciting

there will be a change

why didn't i bring the harmonica?

go to sleep

like sweeney

get a sun tan on a bench

find a shade like sweeney did

fall asleep 

12% left

send an s.o.s. e-mail

and fall asleep

like pi on the rescue boat

and richard parker poo

have faith

(how do you remove the 'untitled folder' icon?)

2-16-13

Think of the people who ruined this beautiful island

Think of the people who ruined this beautiful island

 

Think of cars and scooters belching toxins

 

                                           Most of who are not from this island

So unlike aborigines, their Native Americans

 

Think of a son and father pushing a wheelchair bound mother

Right toward me, wanting to sit but

warm shit on a bench I was to them

in their way, but they would stay

 

I have no sympathy for her

She let them be her creation

Think of them and choose to look at them

But leave and not learn from them

Choose to look away and dance to the music

 

3-15-13

Thick Gray Taichung Sky

it's been dusk all day

because the rain hasn't fallen

motorcycles and distant dogs barking

as loud as the rhythm of footsteps

and swooping birds nearby cawing

birds that know the dark is only fog

 don't fly to their nests in the night

and neither do i

 

every one is active as on a sunny day

but the sky is gray with night's heavy hand

planes have been grounded

by the thickness in their way

the smoking crop burned fields ablaze

like incense whafing in the breeze
 

a sparrow scoops the heavy air

flaps and glides and flaps again

like a noodle pushed across a bowl of soup

the wind subsides and picks her up

as a sputtering motorcycle reminds me

of the toxic monoxide in the mix

a jogger trots by wearing a gas mask

and i ride through a river homeward

 

2-3-13

 

 

 



Entertain this

entertain this

 grow by entertaining yourselves

there's no growth in me entertaining you

and you've shown nothing to learn from me

you've shown no equality towards me

open mike?

open a few more bottles of beer

keep saluting yourselves one more year

while you're here

with nothing to learn, only to earn

find youselves some pussys to burn

some suckers who'll fall in

soon it will be wearing thin

 

entertain this

i entertain myself

with bicycle rides in countrysides

music heads when i'm gratefully dead

when she goes up to her room and

she sings her fateful tune

 i'm going where those chilly winds don't blow

reading books while it cooks

smoking weed when i need seeds

writing poems when i feel alone

humping the blanket when she won't spank it

watching corporate news to get their views

knowing revolution is the only solution

 

entertain this

i could entertain a preacher

ahhh, being one with nature

i am such a gentle creature

just walk me out in the morning dew this morning

please ride me out in the morning dew today

i'm just an English language teacher

2-2-13