Palau Perhentian Kecil no.2; Call to Prayer

They sit
Brownskinned and oceansided
Music in the air
Black tangles of unwashed hair
Islamic scripts embossed in green and gold
On the wall beside a lit Carlsberg sign
Cans of Thai beer in hand
Green and gold its script
Speakerstacks in wooden cabinets
Sizable as any other fixture in the
House (the Bar which houses us)
No walls, a ceiling only and hanging
Electric lanterns in emptied
Bamboo shoots
Leaning on low tables
Soles rudely open and elbows
Rudely propping us up on the
Hewn and lacquered surface
Our offenses draw no
Declamation
Only
Another round of perspiring cans.



February 2012 Palau Perhentian Kecil, Malaysia

Palau Perhentian Kecil no.3; Ablutions

Mine is an
Aggravation Unending - Eternal or simply Unrelenting
mended only by
A diet of fruit and yogurt
Fresh fish taken by hand
From the white surf
And grilled over brown rice and seared with
Coconut milk and dark vegetables -
The seasalt breeze.
Music helps.



February 2012 Palau Perhentian Kecil, Malaysia

Soundly So

But they were
perhaps
Without any self at all
Masterful chameleons
Transparent
Wherever they go
They are
Perhaps
Impregnated with a syndrome
Defined once in Stockholm
Slavishly
Rabidly
Eager for conversion
Chasing down missionaries who
(Though it is their job)
Recoil fearfully at such enthusiasm
Whose own tamped-down
Doubts resurface in
Violent fits and without measure
Vomited outward at such
Pathetic displays of unfounded
Incredulous adorations



February 2012 Palau Perhentian Kecil, Malaysia

Roundly So

They
Who praise what is common abroad in
Strange lands and
Loathe what detestable details exist
In humanity
Universally
But are schooled only in recognizing the
Details in their homeland
And thus let the strangeness of
Foreignness stun them
As much as acknowledging the
Unappreciated difficulty of
Life At Home
Denies (Lets them deny)
The meanness abroad and the
Loveliness of details in the state of
Their beginnings and becomings -

They are the Useless Persons
Who laud five-dollar cheap-plates
Because they cannot cook -
And simple transit because
Their embarcations are routine -
And cheap taxis because
They do not suffer the consequences
Of congestion
A city of millions paralyzed
By cheap taxis
Its skies sullied by those same
Taxis on the cheap
They do not
In their praise
Appreciate the full cost of
What they love because their
Credit is not assessed the fee

They do not know the debts of
Their adopted in-laws nor
Discuss important issues with
Those natives (yes they say natives)
And it is funny
Hilarious and
Tragic beyond assessment

(Here I - only I - do assess
 their credit a fee which
 shall remain an
 outstanding debt)

They too toss cigarettes streetside
Leave half-empty cans in the gutters
Become incontinent in those
Cheap and easy taxis and trains
And come to slumber through
Their waking days
In their adopted nativism
(Yes they say nativism)
They adopt the traits most
Lamentable of
Any people or place and write off
(The debt Outstanding!)
Their lapse with
Praise of
Culture.

And often
Almost always
When time or money or children finally
Demand of them
An accounting long ignored and borne
As a burden still
(Reality they say of it to give it weight)
They depart
Not having been party to the
Reality they left at Home.

Asian women age more gracefully
African skin better retains its oils
Korean girls are prettier
Koreans are naturally ugly
We need plastic surgery

Such things
The statements I have collected
No gross rule in or among any
Being rather expressions of discombobulation
The statements of the Homeless

Go ahead
Say it - I already know
It
I am
A mean fuck
Cruel bastard hypocrite
Finger pointer
Boxing your already deaf
Ears
(May they bleed!)
You'll miss nothing
Anyway.




February 2012 Palau Perhentian Kecil, Malaysia

Camera Obscura

They come to see him every night
Practiced fingers
Stroking and finessing
Typeset strokes and words flow
According to a military rhythm
A pianist might bore them
Hung up as they are on words
And so in the spotlight onstage
He types
His prose painted on a glowing
Projection
Practiced and rehearsed
Perhaps improvised from
Time to time
Always they cheer
When the gasps that follow his
Punctuation cease.



February 2012 Palau Perhentian Kecil, Malaysia

Palau Perhentian Kecil, no. 1

The locals of any place are
Savage to outsiders
Especially so to those visiting under the auspice of
Appreciating That Which Is Common
To the locals
The locals of every place are
Undeserving of their mantle
Husbandry of the land and its fruits
Can only be left to outsiders just as
Appreciation of the common
Like a zen master
Only achieved with fresh eyes

They are envious and confused with
Greed at what
Outsiders
Fresh eyes
Will pay for -
Fruit
Grains
Moments in the forest
And afternoon on the beach
Their rhythm hijacked they are
Untrustworthy of their treasure
But
So too are any tourists untrustworthy
Unable to see their own land in the land with which
Fresh eyes declare to be different, they are an
Unsolvable equation
Hence the damnation which compels
Their unsated wandering
I have found my voice and it speaks
Through me and
It calls you all
It calls you all out
It is savage it must be savage and ruthless
To answer your abuses
Your monstrous
Nature
Your heartless mechanism itself a
process with no bounds or limits
Or restraint
And so I sing -



February 2012 Palau Perhentian Kecil, Malaysia