the time of ramen

Swirling pennants raised in celebrations no one understands.Patterned silks embroidered with elegant nonsense,characters from an uninvented language.Signifying without meaning,distinction without difference,heralds of cancer or cure,signals of madness advancing and retreating,finding fisherman on the rocks,well-intentioned speakers out of their depths.Maybe theRead more…

As-Yet Unspoken

Round river stone a Pleistocene cannonball.Slender-fronded fern, diminished but identical tothe 3-story trees that shaded the dinosaurs,tight-fisted palm a thousand miles fromthe desert, thrusting high and comfortable in the company of grass. Unwitting, we participate in a vast, silentinheritance ofRead more…

I want you want

We are in York – old and newcity wall a thousand years older than my countryI want maps and phone-ahead bedsand Zagat ratings that say nothing condescendingly“American” You want ghost tours led byfake-accent Dickens castoffsand Yorkshire pudding with“Real American Chili”.YouRead more…