Sunday, February 16, 2014

[Poem] The Dream Highway of Ms. Mannivongsa, Part IV


IV.

Zombie Kabuki in Seattle.
It’s all the rage.

They love their coffee in this city,
But she recalls the snakes and bombies,
And dilapidated dinosaur museums of old Savannakhet
Whenever she idles through.

“How many battles did it take to write The Art of War?”
She debates with the foxy lady
Who’s secretly a black magic woman born to bewilder
Like a bard’s imperfect actor upon the stage
Or a stone-faced troll beneath a bridge
No gruff goat has ever known.

The world has its Wendigo, Shoggoths and Jabberwocky,
But winged Kinnaly remain aliens to a galaxy 
Hammering a new apocalypse
For beautiful children who will grow up strangers
To the inked page,
To bricks, to mortar, to boundaries.

If she had kept the first camera obscura of Mozi,
Ms. Mannivongsa might have changed the cosmos,
But what is an attachment to memories
Or all of these shiny electric brains?

She prefers the dance of the mermaid and the monkey
Free from modernity.



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