this isnt it

so in america land the teens have stopped
apparently Im writng this with a nose bleed
I feel something cold and invigorating in my face
raise my hand to my head and the eyes confirm
men are not accustomed to blood the way women are
american teens stopped eating garbage
and the economy tanks
the world tanks if your in the business of business
the whole world was tuned to the consumption of teen aged girls from tarzana
they wear black
I hear metal coming from head phones
in the quiet before the lecture
where were you when I was metal?
when I was metal, you were bryan adams
you were jennifer lopez
and now the youth is metal
blanket metal
a generation that stopped consuming the obvious
america is entering a dangerous and necessary rebirth
much of the masses will be lost
the new movement is absurdism
they laugh at all grand plans
they laugh in spanish, chinese, and armenian,
"tell god your plans, it makes him laugh"

this is my class, its about to begin
and I pause to listen to metal
pouring, destroying the silence
in an otherwise boring room
coming from the head phones of the student in the back

the cologne he wears smells sickly sweet
it's mingled with his sweat and reminds me of a humid summer's day in Taipei

it can't mask anything

his smell,
mingled with wet beds, sour spit, and muffled sweat can't mask anything for anyone except for him

and seriously put, I don't think he covets baby teeth
the tooth fairy I met looks at it more as an occupation

I think he's gonna open up a beetle nut stand after he retires

does the cologne mask their stealthy approach
towards children coveting their baby teeth

no, i'm not
the tooth fairy has smelly armpits
he smells like all foreigners in our school, masked with cologne

her parents worked as body guards for elvis
her name is short for california
she can hit harder than any of them
she made her mother cry when she got the tattoo of
a mexican revolutionary

he has the funds
hes a man of action
he bought a house in the valley

he sees a way out
he drinks lite beer
he doesnt want to work in his fathers pet store
he is the brains, the man in the lab behind this whole operation

the man has an imaginary wife
he never brings her around
he always laughs first
and he never eats in front of us

he smokes and drinks excessively
his pits sweat
he doesnt like to sit on the pation furniture
he smokes when no one else does
and he turns his back on everyone
pretending to check messages

he doesnt like to talk about her
we has elaborate reasons
he always buys more than he can drink when he visits

take it your reading his new book

the tooth fairy is actually a corrupt and secret organization
teeth are just like ivory
with the cost of a mere quarter, the teeth will be ground and packaged and sent to countries with the demand for ivory dust.
you may not know it, but every country has it's own special way of discarding these baby teeth.

there is always the much commercialized american way of putting the tooth under the pillow
that is because american children tend to sleep alone or in small groups of twos

the chinese, however, have the very inconvenient tradition of sleeping together as an entire family
so, the tooth fairy (TTF) has insured that children throw their tooth over the roof backwards for so called good luck

exploiting children's teeth may seem far fetched and unlikely in our society nowadays

who ever even uses ground ivory? you may ask

well you may find it surprising that traces of tooth powder may be found in things such as, glue, milk, ipod ear-phones, carrots, paint, designer handbags, and, of course, ice cream

still sceptical?

why don't you ask your tooth fairy

EXT. STREET - DAY

Two lovers are saying good bye. Suddenly a garbage truck turns a corner and blares
english lessons over a loud speaker. We can not hear a word she says. He walks away

FADE OUT

the garbage truck passes my dorm twice a day

playing that garbage truck classic

eerie cords ooze through the window along with the smell of diesel and rotting trash

my roommate wakes me up by either stomping her existence in and out or by banging the metal drawers that she uses to stock her food

or by rattling her make-up concealer

i would swear it makes the same sound as white-out, the kind that we would blotch our exam papers with, the kind that would clump over our mistakes pretending to make everything all better

they must be cousins, white-outs and concealers

oh the things i wish i could've learned
and the life i wish i had

faulty wiring

our mutual friend in seattle works for subway
to pay for a ticket back home to visit family
I remember seeing her on the back of her fathers motorcycle
one day when I looked up from my novel and 7-11 seaweed wrap
common staple food, the common man
he had one of those old honda cubs, the ones you
can run without oil for half a year, painted green they
are used by shrimp farmers, post men;
she is her fathers daughter
excited to tell me her biology professor
gave her a book to read
and it was an author she recognized from
our brief time together on
the southern ends of a concrete slab

my brother hasnt spoken to me since november
not since he became an angry, young, idealist
mom is with her office girls, bowling, who goes bowling any more?
If the program is to devour the ones you love
than the irish choose to eat slowly and savor
the bitter root, unsalted or cured
the russians devour their pain as such;
marry men like their fathers, impregnate their mothers
but never do they devour family
comrade is different than friend

years after he passed
it was my job to take the old beater, rust tinged mustang
down to the shop to have a mechanic see if he wanted to buy the damn thing
his damn mustang
it would be years away when I see him starting to creep in me
but on that day I laughed like a mad men when the mechanic told me
how faulty the wiring and mickey mouse the engine was put together
the mechanic said "who did the wiring?"
and ten years flew off my back
ten years of thinking I was wrong
he was right
ten years of faulty wiring

I talked to a friend over subway
everyone is looking for something they don't have
he is looking for family
or the meaning of family
he doesn't want to love family just because he is supposed to love them

like robots I said
all of us are robots at the start
we are programed to love our family before we learn to hate
because we need them to love back

he is trying to overcome the programing and love for love I guess

I don't know what I'm missing
I'm still looking for it

im not sure, I think he does write about food though, I dont read his books,
he stayed with me a couple of times when I lived in chiayi,

he lives in korea and writes about taiwan

does he write about taiwanese korean food then?

well, if you had a swim bladder
problems would arise from eating to fast
and not letting your food soak properly

i miss living on a steady taiwanese diet
of nitrates and liqure
a friend of mine just sent me a copy of his new book
he wrote about taiwan, lives in korea and tells me sorry
in advance for and if he stole any of my stories
this made me think of that missle korea threw in the air
the one with the satelite now orbiting the world
playing north korea anthems over and over in space

I lived next to a elementary school,
they played the same song every morning
then a teacher lectured about how to brush your teeth
and picking up trash
when she finished, on with the music again

I wonder how it feels, being a swim bladder
I wonder how it feels, having a swim bladder

knowing that something will save you in the end, no worries

don't worry, my bladder will catch me
I'll be fine

and in the midst of all of that
my dad gets hit by a badminton racket

maybe it wants to be a swim bladder

the funny things you think while on the elevator

snake powder and rhinoceros's horns
burnt wine and chicken fights
druken laughs and chapped lips

It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.

thumb wars
night markets
rainy streets

hospital stays

please get better

who would guess a gall bladder would be so much trouble