Monday, January 29, 2024

THE UNEXPECTED (Two Concerts and a Food Crawl)

He had a dream, 

a threesome at a meagerly furnished studio apartment that smelled of fried catfish and the burnt unlimited samgyupsal from the Thursday Group's consecutive engagements with the impossible Raymond Reddington who must bear with Agent Elizabeth Keen's naivity in every episode until the doctor finally stepped in with a prescription for a night that never was to break the fast in Timog Avenue. 

There's a line, 

from Room 602 of the B Hotel to Jones Bridge through the world's largest Chinatown welcome arch for two orders of teahouse dimsum that was paid by a teller from the renovated Chinabank building who sincerily chewed on a bag of frozen kikiam from a nearby bakery...


...where another long line crawl through a mezzanine of purple hopia and frozen pork siomai, a table of mami and siopao,  burning tofu barbecue, a box of imported cherry and chilled Hut Taho.


It's a parfait for The Dawn, 

real milk tea for her though and a full body massage at the Changekeepers Academy of two ageing protest singers and a famous fried chicken that shaved their brother's moustache with songs which pulled Balong to a deep slumber.




There's too much blood at the SIDCOR Sunday Market but a pack each of menudo, igado, lengua estofado and humba were enough to honor each day in the trails of Munoz that raised the curtain for the unexpected and a subsequent feast of salami, olives and pistachio seeds in Bakal 2...


Monday, January 22, 2024

WHEN I'M 54 (in Luang Prabang)

With apologies to the Beatles...

When I get older in Luang Prabang
Four days before now
Did you send them the carrot cake
54 years in a bottle of wine



I'd been here since Monday noon
Would you lock the gates 
Will we still need dams, will they still flood towns
When I'm fifty-four

They'll be older too
And if you say finance
I'll drink Lao beer with you


I could be handy, climb Mount Phousi
When the sun is gone
Knit protection and care by the fire
Cold Thurday morning alms
Doing inclusive, being responsive
Its a transition

Will you still need me, will you still hire me
When I'm fifty-four


Every year we book flights
To Bangkok and Hanoi that are not too dear
We scrimped and save Bali
January in Luang Prabang
Beerlao in the evenings


Send me a workplan, drop me an outcome
State a clear target
Indicate precisely how much you need
Yours is old but not wasting away


Give me a sai oua and a fish
Meat for everyone
Will you still need me, will you still hire me
When I'm fifty-four


Monday, January 15, 2024

3 FUNERALS AND A LAYOVER

a shield of burned pork
sweet coffee from the slope
Krabang laid over



chasing the reaper
lightning bolt and a tired heart 
three deaths on Sunday



Kathmandu is lost
spoiled blood cleansed and redeemed
born to bike and live!

Monday, January 08, 2024

INTO THE LAST 3 MONTHS

3 months minus 6

8 installation rites through 91 days
a milestone unveiled in Baloc



3 months minus 1

chicken croquetas hatched for Gregory
leftover beer blended with vintage whiskey


3 months minus 5
 
53 full seats on the bus to Cubao
a hot MILF in a Red Horse bottle

3 months minus 7

the thief came in broad daylight
for a friend, a foe, and someone I know

3 months to D Day

April when she comes
is Paul chasing Simon's unwashed bike