REDUNDANCE OF MEMORIES

POEM

Surreal Modern History

2025-01-20 08:56:36 Germany

Seven hundred years ago when we first met, reading Plato’s view
You said if this wind could make the door move through
Then it could turn any page, making words anew
So I fell into the black forest’s moon so true

In primitive tribes I began learning speech’s way
Through imagining our talks, practicing silence and display

Four hundred years ago I snuck into night to spy your feeding trail
Often saw you cross mountains and streams, up slopes to make water pale
While I stood ready to come say “long time no see” without fail

Whether I know you is truly our greatest question’s weight
But year after year I’ve devoured you in my mind’s deep state

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Youth Portraits / Poem Series

2022-12-22 00:27:50 Belgium

Tiantian/Youth Portrait (I)

You say you found a job, call to tell me, you’re such a pain
I say you don’t really love her so you muddle through this strain
You say why this love feels like a position that makes you drain
I say that surely depends on your future plan to maintain

Strange Woman/Youth Portrait (II)

First time we met she told me not to fall for literature’s snare
I said you’re right, then shut my mouth, no more words to share
Second time we met she told me to see through pretense with care
I said you’re right, got up to light a smoke and cook noodles there

The Woman in Love/Adulation (III)

She says he wrote a poem just for her delight
She says he came to the big city for her sight
From hesitation to being moved took half a year’s flight
Crossing friendship to love’s worship took half a lifetime’s height
She says this version of him is her absolute pride so bright
She calls out “darling” then “baby” with all her might
Says why don’t we take a bath together tonight

The Man in Love/Farmer (IV)

He wrote a love poem thinking his talent truly grand
If not for her, he could switch the lead by his own hand
He marched forth with a sower’s passionate command
Reclaimed the youth he’d unfortunately lost from his land
Now he’s willing to be a farmer, diligent and planned
Plowing, fertilizing, working without reprimand
He never doubts this garden he tends with his own hand
Can only think for him of years flowing like foolish sand

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Messy/ In Name of Vice Versa

The bar’s name was vice versa.
She told the bartender we would be together forever;
the bartender said he’d quit in autumn to prepare for grad school;
I said I’d come back next summer.

She licked the salt from the hollow between her thumb and index finger,
drank the first sip of tequila,
tilted her head back and squeezed 1/6 of a lemon,
letting the juice drip into her mouth.

When leaving, she drank the last sip of gin and tonic,
spitting the ice cubes into another mouth.

A year later, we broke up;
the bartender was still working at the bar;
I never went back.

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Discipline and Punish

The poet helps people with absolute passion
Excavate meaning from ordinary life’s ration
This exchange of flesh for truth needs no confession—
It’s honest, abundant, even a noble expression
Therefore neither fiction nor delusion

He hurls his flesh toward dust and urban sprawl
With open stance rejecting one and all
Thus earning qualification to traverse every fall
And winning the right to mock and scorn them all

While they—the gradually forgotten, the exiled
Have been reduced to static symbols, entertainment filed
In vast white squares they mourn and pray, beguiled

Their unheard devotion makes them their own deity
Tireless worship, faithful piety
Day after day serving artificial candles’ weak light
Striving with all their might for sustained depletion’s rite

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Winter/Double Warm

2022-10-29 21:08:11 Belgium

Winter’s coming soon
I have two small quilts
And one big duvet cover
Spread both flat inside the cover
When cold, sleep under the thick one on the left
When hot, roll over to the thin one on the right
When even colder, fold both quilts
And pile them on top of me

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Say Something

2022-10-24 05:36:07 Belgium

Seeing someone write a letter made me realize
It’s been so long since I put pen to paper
I want to write a long letter to someone
About everything in my ordinary life

Like yesterday’s rain that fell so hard
I’ve finally learned to roll cigarettes
Or how lately my afternoon naps stretch so long
My head aches as if insects eat my brain

I must pour all these things into my letter
Write a hundred and one pages before sending it out
Have the recipient read each line to me on the phone
Then say I’m tired and drift deep into sleep

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