Intro - "Excuse me sir, would you like to watch a movie?" says the stewardress at 29,000 feet. She pulls out my personal TV monitor and hands me a wine list. Travelling. This has been my life since 1988, when I first....
The Argument - Swollen resentment swells up like tears or a sponge floating across the bottom of the sea, And here for a moment nothing matters but the endless passing of cars and seconds spent waiting for something else to happen.....
What have I done to make you forget? - Like a delicate kite flittering anxiously between patches of meridian blue and rusted out TV antennae, a small white dog barks A wisdom as ancient as forgotten oceans and Cleopatra's promises swells in the sky as the city begins to....
Waiting To Buy Tickets To The Movies - The ogre spat down on the street, a disgusting act of nonchalance played over and over in crimson splotches throughout the city. A shriek, and the virgin princess jumped back aghast, her charming prince dashing to the rescue. He issued....
The Cat - Hiding under cars is daily stuff for a cat in Taipei That is, until the day a nice woman with an umbrella says "Kitty, kitty...Here pretty kitty!" What's a cat to do but crawl out and have a good look....
The Dogs - Walking down the hill in the morning to catch a bus I wonder what it's like to live in those dark huts full of smoke and grime and generations past. Each has a roof guarded by ancient clay dogs carefully....
The New Pen - Because it was so clear today I bought a new fountain pen so that my words could match the autumn sincerity of the breeze going in & out my bathroom window. Flipping the pages of a book of poetry sitting....
Corner of Da-An and Chung-Hsiao - At the center of a book there are strings to keep the whole mess together but what is in the center of a woman whose eyes are connected to yours through a wide space of nothing? A memory? a tiny....
The green garden & the blue couch - You are a little girl when I'm around the corner, but a woman - imposing & sincere when I need to be near you, and this sets me back a million years into childhood and hardened forms of my mother.....
Serenade (I) - They told me that you would be Around And that you were as swollen with life As ever. They said that you had had dreams Of cumbersome flying machines And that you and I had held fish In our hands....
Where has my friend gone? - It takes a short pause... "one moment please" and grey light filters through curtains of memories (membranes?) that wrap a fond past in safe seclusion. The moment exists forever, just one frame, suspended in a personal film. The setting is....
Yeah Friday, Gotta Go - It all started in a messy pool of cold saliva. All over. Just a mess. Then the phone beeped (they don't ring anymore), and the warm comfort of the black tunnel of unconsciousness slowly opened into the retinal world of....
The Spider - Fifth moon of the year of the horse, and there was this spider I watched it splunker across the back of the red naugahyde seat. Was the spider moving at the same speed as the taxi? No, of course not.....
Knowing - Like the sudden snarl from a phlegm hacking old Chinese man, the delta between death and desire sours the air with smoke and tree gristle Something will happen, it always does, and things will be better I know Listen, they....
The Birds - It couldn't have been more than 5:30 in the morning. For some reason I couldn't sleep, and felt compelled to get out and take a walk. The only people up early in Taipei were baggy underweared old war veterans and....
Four Feet High - "Ready in five minutes," or says the Speckled cheek girl with the koala bear bag. It's always a brash flourescent lit room, A mirror, and some water in a box From Canada. The others - some in red, some done....
On Returning to Taiwan for Christmas - With the setting sun somewhere in Chicago, and a few hours of road lag, everything was cool. Until the red white blue couple interrupted, "Ex-cuuse me SIR. You are in our seat." (horn-rimmed greasy-haired JERK SNOT!) "Oh, now, really? Then....
The Welcome Ride - The ride from the airport was push push and a shove onto a moving tin can baked under the 3000W sun overhead. Everywhere was sweat, like little fountains of clear ink spouting from our faces. "What are you doing to....
The Great Dumpling Hunter - After about three days in town, I had to venture out and get something to eat on my own. I possessed a remarkably useless vocabulary consisting of: Wo-yao (I want), ni-hao (hello), duo-hsiao chien (how much), lao-ban (boss), hsiao-jieh (miss),....
The Great French Cat Army - It was my first time to France. I imagined tree lined avenues filled with people in cafes drinking coffee and reading books. I knew the cities would be charming, and filled with beautiful things, just like an old black and....
Milk-Tea And Scotch - The dancers floated about the sparkling center stage, spinning in unison to the thousands of Egyptian cat eyes that crept silently along the velvet walls. A mighty ballroom mirror hung like a stellar chandelier, suspended above everything, casting it's tear....
The Old Man - Sleek granite walls rose out of the street forming narrow canyons of high rise offices, slicing the midday sun in half like a fresh lemon. The cheated sun pierced one side of the street with a ruthless interrogation lamp intensity,....