IN ENGLISH THE KOREAN WORD BOP MEANS
“GLUTINOUS RICE;” or, AT THE WOMEN’S COLLEGE
Can’t stop messin’
with the danger zone — Cyndi Lauper
Halfway through the semester
finally
they stop asking me
How old are you?
Don’t you miss your home town?
Is it true you’re not married?
How much do you drink?
And we go on
to deeper things
What, sir, does
she-bop mean?
Good question
I wouldn’t’ve known
except I read Time’s
Music Section
to keep up with
my race
It means, I say
authoritatively
Female Autoeroticism
Blank stares all around
exotic frogs
on lotus pads
gazing up
into the Light
so I say it
in Korean
yoja jah-wee haeng-wee
and I sense a ripple
in this placid pond
of Oriental souls
How does he know
that bad word?
they whisper
quite rightly
given my struggles
with their tongue
but at least I’ve
let them know
what we sing about
back where I come from
(From Fluid in Darkness, Frozen in Light, Pearl Editions, 2000)
NAILS
Ever since I’m not allowed in bathrooms anymore
I like to watch bedroom people trim their nails
It seems the one thing people do with absolute sincerity
I heard in India they save their parings in little boxes
Maybe enameled with a shimmying Shakti or Krishna Jerking Off
And give them to their sweethearts
Hi, Doll, thought you might want to slip these under your pillow
Or Give the box a little shake now and then
When you think of me sleeping in the street
Well what the hell do you expect on 3 rupees a month
A goddam Whitman’s Sampler? It’s true Robert Ripley said so
I wish I could watch me doing my own toes
I think I’d understand evolution better The monkey part anyway
Some people actually chew themselves right down to the bloody quick
But their mothers always stop them Stand up straight
Wipe those crumbs off your lips Remember you’re a human being
So you marry you wake up catch your honeymoon bride nibbling a piggy
And you wonder if Maybe she doesn’t love me in just way I thought
Then you die according to some books your nails keep on growing
Right through the casket Right through the tamped earth
It’s no coincidence we speak of lawns well manicured
But that’s morbid It’s probably not true But it’s why
Nails are such a serious matter like everything else
In our daily human animal lives
(From Fluid in Darkness, Frozen in Light, Pearl Editions, 2000)
“SHALL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN”
Suddenly mother Nature got up all over and brushed herself off
Scowled at us kids at play in the graveyard Don’t Touch A Thing
I Want All This As It Is As Evidence Of What Your Father Done
She commenced to tremble like leaves till all the patches of cloth
On her body was on the ground around her in a little circle heap
And all her flesh was mouths like her face’s like her between the legs
We kids scrammed We had to warn paw with his bags of coal dust
In the bar She’s Up Again This Time All Wet Lips And Wet Teeth Tonight
But he had heard her anyhow Might As Well Try Silence The Crack Of Doom
Slid two shells in Over Under we jumped up and down and up
Till paw pulled us off the ceiling Popped the gas inside our heads
With his picker so we’d Stay Down so we’d Keep Low She Don’t See You
Then up the Path of Skulls and Cans to where she was wailing
Them mouths was cats’ mouths now with flatten noses skinny tongues
She’d gotten Grampaw out of the grave His fresh skin pearly white
But half his head was gone He had that look in his one left eye WOMEN
They Never Quit but paw drew his bead with his Smile of Smiles
And blew the bitch to smithereens Them mouths just little loops now
Hung on twigs like rubber bands Little O’s so still and quiet
Just like a woman mother can sometimes be
(From Fluid in Darkness, Frozen in Light, Pearl Editions, 2000)
PIETA
A young man bowed politely
His head snapped off at the stem
The head hit the ground with a thud
The young man kicked the head
The head bounced away
Bounced politely into the lap of a girl
The girl was sitting in the grass
She cradled the head and stroked it
The body without its head staggered in the distance
The girl watched its blind feints and lunges
She asked the head if it wanted its body back
Not quite yet said the head Let it wander around a little
It will go to pieces once it realizes what it’s lost
Let’s wait and watch it come groveling back
It always puts on quite a show
And the head liked the girl’s lap
It liked being cradled and stroked without its body parts getting in the way
It liked being the center of attention
Sooner or later the rest of the body would grope its way back to them
Sooner or later it must tumble upon their intimacy
See said the head
Already the young man’s arm was crawling toward them in the grass
The fingers of the hand clutched the grass and dragged the arm after it
Not far behind it a leg came bounding along
Bounding along gamely and drunk-like but bounding along nevertheless
Somewhere in the distance the torso lay writhing in the grass
As soon as it learned to sit up it toppled over again
But in this way discovered a method of locomotion proper to its kind
Clumsy, clownish, in breathtaking somersaults of slow urgency it too would come
Last of all would come the young man’s cock-and-balls
How it inched forward in the grass would remain a mystery
But come it would
It would come because desire is shameless in its naked persistence
Because the blunders of instinct once set in motion are unerring
Because a cock-and-balls creeping forward in the grass
Moving without seeming to move but closing in all the same
Is a marvel no brave girl has ever yet been able to resist
Picking up and cradling in the palm of her hand
WAIT said the head HEY I GOT HERE FIRST
Said the head ENOUGH
But already it was too late
Already had the girl lifted the cock-and-balls to her lips
In despair the head buried its face in her lap
Buried its face there in blubbers of rage amid childlike snuffles
Princess and Frog Prince and French wet kisses
In the grass even today you can find their fairy tale statue
Above a simple plaque that reads: SOIXANTE-NEUF
(From Overdressed to Kill, Backwaters Press, 2005)
For “Miss Min’s Magic Monday Morning” and Commentary go to:
http://www.asiancha.com/content/view/1982/484/
For “On Bumping into a Formerly Snaggle-Toothed Young Coed” go to:
http://atticusreview.org/on-bumping-into-a-formerly-snaggle-toothed-young-coed/