10tonfunk

Standing in the freezing courtyard of a Daoist temple
listening to Jay Z
mean muggin young peasant extras and feeling bad
drinking Italian coffee out of a tupperware cup covered in stickers
breath hanging in the air like the bags under actresses eyes
Can no longer tell what’s a set and what’s history

Dark sides of meat hanging off the ribs of a panel truck
A corner electronics store offering a shiny display of rice cookers
to a dead street and a bend in the highway
Jackie Chan ad smiling down upon the folly
One child slogans painted on brick walls and houses
mixed with ads for car repair, cell phone stores
Life with one baby is so much better

Those that can afford to have built their own houses
studded with bizarre tile patterns, motley assortments of columns and balconies
a decorator’s catalog thrown into the air
scraped off the floor and shuffled into a floor plan
ample meterage for an Evita-style serenade

The countryside still wriggling in Deng’s embrace
a short man with a long reach ...read more

A funeral procession trundles through the chilled gray streets
unfocused
staring at the RV as it rolls past
Fireworks popping ineffectively at the hazy morning chill

I just came from the place in
my memory palace where
the black girls go missing,
your mausoleum
floor spattered with gleaming charcoal splotches of hair dye

it’s getting so I can’t afford the mortgage on these memories
black clad assassins keep putting holes in the roof ...read more

Real gods, fake fur
legs of ham in handy tennis racket shaped carrying cases
just sling the parma over your arma
snow drips off the tiled roofs
hissing steam when it kisses the ground

In the shoe store a leg is extended from underneath a robe
and a heavy down coat
a foot clad in a black boot with embroidered patterns
laced up to near the knee
emerges
The slipper-soled boots are exchanged
for cheap, puffy black moon boots
shoe shopping in costume concluded
we head back to the set

The dating show contestant, 25
lists his criteria for women
with his mom at his side
arguing over how many years older or younger
shorter or taller
is okay
additional requirements
“has to love me” ...read more