by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé
Ought-to-live could be walking down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, dressed in chinoiserie and weighed down in Roberto Cavalli and Louis Vuitton. Those could be pirated too like the Hermes Silkypop trying to look user-friendly and commonplace. Economy is like laktong and the body of water it breathes in, pure serenity, no power to ego or overcrowding. A hackneyed image best describes the Second Dakini who has achieved old-wine maturity by cruise-ship speed, 20 knots or so. Behind her Amelia-Earhart goggles is a sail plan that will ride out any wind force, the same flap and fluster one would expect of a dugong mistaken for a mermaid in the fog. The dugong wants to join the salmon in the Great Lakes. It wants to return to 1950, the days of unlisted phones that kept everything domiciliary and home-loving.
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ABOUT THE POET ~
Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé has edited more than ten books and co-produced three audio books. The titles span the genres of ethnography, journalism, creative nonfiction, and poetry, several edited pro bono for non-profit organizations including Sok Sabay Cambodia, Riding for the Disabled Association, and the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre. Previously an entertainment and lifestyle journalist, Desmond has traveled to Australia, France, Hong Kong and Spain for his stories, culminating in the authorship of the limited edition Top Ten TCS Stars for Caldecott Publishing. Trained in book publishing at Stanford University, with a theology masters (world religions) from Harvard University and fine arts masters (creative writing) from the University of Notre Dame, he is the recipient of the Hiew Siew Nam Academic Award, and Singapore Internationale Grant, with his poetry and fiction appearing in nine chapbooks, various anthologies, and over 140 literary journals. An interdisciplinary artist, Desmond also works in clay, his ceramic works housed in museums and private collections in India, the Netherlands, the UK and the US.
Last updated May 31, 2011