Birthday
(Gangnam, South Korea, April 6th 2006)
What can I tell you about Korea?
Got this new moleskin for my pocket and some square glasses with a red frame
I sweat on the subway I SWeat on the bus I SWeat in the classroom I SWeat & I SWeat
Got a package with new shirts and sweets from Tiffany
I am working on getting the bones back in my face
Got a package full of vitamins and fish oil
An Egyptian poet was delivered to my door
He speaks French and his name is Rami
Got an electric shaver for hectic mornings
I got and I got and I get and I get
Last night Rami and I ate fire chicken and relieved ourselves with an egg sandwich
Last night I awoke early with a yearning for Mona
My new bathroom smells musty but my room is huge
I crave a Baltic mist, the cold sea, the voice of a Russian woman
I am an alien but this is UFO BULLSHIT
The yellow dust is blowing in from China
MILLIONS WEAR MASKS
I cannot see the sky
Gecko’s Lounge
(Itaewon, South Korea, April 9th 2006)
Itaewon is little America
.
Maybe security settles in boundaries.
Maybe security is a ship full of fish.
Maybe security is a port for the soul.
Maybe security is cracked and caked.
Maybe security is a cruel joke.
Maybe security is precise but not in the way we expect.
Maybe security cannot be locked in one spot.
Maybe America
holds its gas.
Maybe I am entertainment
fucked.
Maybe it’s all a bore.
Maybe my face
splits down the middle.
Subway Line 2
(Gangnam, South Korea, April 22nd 2006)
This stop is Gangnam. Gangnam. You may exit on the right. Please watch ur step:
Nothing is more dull than sheen. More useless than thousands of trite fictions. You’ve got it right: ensnared in inertia.
Welcome to nowhere Korea. Out of frustration my memory runs westward.
I suck the insubstantial.
Sub
way:
I speak English slowly. I teach ESL and I’m losing my English. Alas my thoughts are car-peted in grammar.
Divorce/departure, parting
the curtain
and witnessing
an empty room.
Coex Mall Movie Theatre
French movie with Korean Subtitles
(Seomsung, South Korea, April 28th, 2006)
This story is based on a film which is based on REAL LIFE. The story itself is based on failure.
A few children wanted to have fun in the forest. They murdered a couple in the sewers. They ran through the forest with flashlights.
The woman taught French. The couple was handsome. The children were supernatural. Their actions could not be explained.
My Villa
(Gangnam, South Korea, May 1st 2006)
trun
cated
pass
ages
My passages is full
of errors.
The paint is still
wet.
In two months
I will be
divorced.