Saturday, July 23, 2011

Please Eat: Nine Triple-Haikus I Wrote on Vacation in Indonesia July 4-23 2011

DIMANA MATAMU

Everybody comes
within a hair's breadth but the cars
somehow never crash.

The nauseating
density! Close calls just seem
to keep on coming.

Underfoot, a ditch
of fetid drainage awaits
you should you dismount.

SCHMOPYRIGHT

Surrounded. Gangs of
quasi-Disney images
on lam from lawyers.

Ersatz Mickey gives
subpoenas the slip. Toots that
steamboat whistle. Scram!

Badly drawn Donald
maps their getaway. Offshore
asylums! Doubloons!

FABS

I feign a textile
familiarity whilst
enjoying my tea.

We chit-chat futures
contracts and labor ire. My
polo's provenance.

When prices smiling
will levitate liquidity
from these piled patterns.

ITINERARY

Our stops are boxed. Our
dietary supplements
are encased. Day-pops.

Planned and ad-hoc. It's
all a snap I rapidly
compose and knock off.

Jots. A succession
of frames. Grabbed and yoked in the
same crazy schedule.

SOMNIA

A smooth mind and a
quiet body. Even if
sleep won't, calm surrounds.

Dark and the tick-tock
hush. The nightstand waterglass
holds the cool. You sip.

You can't tell morning
from dreaming. You can only
say that day appears.

TRAVELING

Fancy myself the
low-maintenance foreigner.
Eat what they offer.

The language. I try
to keep my mouth on mute. Let
others speak for me.

Follow along. My
foreignness though obvious
a matter of fact.

OW

It's best to practice
paralysis under her
deep-tissue torture.

It is best to give
Ah-tjen your full submission.
Be still. No squirm. Ooh.

Best to let her flood
your veins with pain and your brain
with sudden sunshine.

SINGKAWANG

Shiny white tile. You
remove your sandals. Later
you shower. Please eat.

Click the lock. When the
driver comes we will all see
the shrine. There's my house.

Only the mayor
has the ding-ding bell. In-laws
have modern scooters.

INNER COLONIES

Your greasy guts will
go native if you grant them
a sloppy first try.

Every local dish
wants to tango inside and
test your intwistins.

Get you so tangled
the only way to unknot
is not to worry.