More stream of conciousness poetry. This one is about a little town I visited in China this past summer. It made me sad. I'll translate the little bit at the end in a different post...I like the way it looks here without a translation. Oh, and I tried to format it to make it look a bit neater, but the stupid forum doesn't like blank space...apparently.
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How subtle the stench of broken dreams
paper-cut-out childhood phantasms
dying in the streets
Drifting through paradise
Don't eat the fruit without first peeling off
bitter empty-promise rind full of dis-ease
God never warned us poor peoples
about peopling the world with poor peoples
Adam and Eve gave up everything to give us what price
freedom?
Stinking empty hovel homes lining packed-street-rivers
peddlers peddling peddlers peddling active passivism
how can you change it?
Green pavement drifting garbage from all walks talking talk of renovation
Brand new sparklebrightstar buildings building up piles of refuse
and people too poor to live in glass-haven bird-cages
But not too poor to build them
Being built on ignorant fruit consuming God defying
Simple simple
The fee simple?
Oh.
Simple people too easily accepting beautiful streets
and broken streams washing clean in dirt
to what purpose?
Poor not in spirit but too poor to keep that spirit fed
preying on tourists bloody capitalist merchants
Little children dressed as dishclout begging
off plump blind eyes turning cheeks
not pocket books
Fifty degrees (centigrade) nothing to be done but endure
Fanning back the sweat but the stink still lingers
Nothing to be done but beg big fat Buddha
for happy full belly next time
around
Grown ups not so grown because still small fingers
pick pockets in markets full of raw people meats out of work
Privatization profanity
Stealing wages
With no miracle Mao pro-proletariat
Marxist
bad Facist
or whatever
on the horizon
Falling along torrid turrets of lives washed away
Ever aware of how much want
Isn't mine
Zhe ge duo yao bu wo de . . .
Ni ai ni de jia ma?
Ni zui ai Zhongguo ma?
Zhen de.
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