by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé
1. an ethnographer can’t help but objectify
2. the watchdogging what’s eclipsing / defecting
3. he paints the solarium / the cheeks / no, the eyebrow
4. brown boy in the blue frock / its chiffon
5. a cerulean styron sting / prayer can be a poison ring, a finger
6. a call from a lighthouse, pillars / william down jacob’s ladder
7. cranial, vertex / quick-speed lover, snarling body
8. leaping-lizard women / clothed men you notice
9. you notice / you transcribe the garish / the trying bad news
10. because there’s the bother / there, the white paint public
11. morals, nail polish; her big toes twiddling / door knobs
12. I don’t have luxuries, of such walking / open legs
13. scary scary snowstorm / snowed-in man, cold-blood return
14. everyone’s double take caught / under shades, lucky lucky
15. he smiles / and he smiles back, peranakan captivity
16. in a wince; so he knows he has feelings peeling
17. ductile water moving its waves in the cold
18. the paparazzi have got it right / ….
19. the paparazzi have got it right, headlong profiles
20. love in a fix / knowing little of what can be said these days
21. …. no / no / no ….
22. I like the serendipitous / no, the sexy surreptitious
23. the unlevelled / the treble roofs rocking off more tiles
24. off the problem with the not-so-great disabled poem
25. off the patrician problem of the slowing down / word-by-word
26. the trek between 87 degrees / the right angle beneath
27. there’s always the unpractised truth / of thinning particular
28. …. no / toothpick-precision / ….
29. the random assemblage / ikebana tallness
30. a shattered peace / these things I don’t want to see wane
31. don’t want anymore / don’t want any / anymore waning
32. but of course / sadness is a slow burn, waxed peruvian wings
33. ostrich wings piñata-heavy / sitting in banged-up heat
34. wetness, the messy / wildness quaffing, always quaffing
35. back the klang river / torrents but no sound, no rainy sound
36. back the picnic sundays / her picture, perfect sermon
37. I don’t have the sleepwalk peace you have
38. I envy you / but I don’t either
39. I don’t envy you either / lily-livered yellow
40. the wall a mellow clock / many hands and gnarled hours
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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