by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé
I.
According to Can Grande della Scala
the first level of wellspring meaning:
On 9 January 1959, Pablo Picasso wrote a poem
at La Californie, his villa in Cannes. He called it Hunk of Skin —
an infrahistoria with a sort of gazpacho coldness. Just across his lap
lay his mink ranch and its menagerie, the greylag and magpie geese.
And across from that his Malaga, knifing along a blue arête
overlooking a gorge. Today, the synagogue is flagged like a maypole.
That Cantonese restaurant serves soft peanuts in tiny woks.
In the town square, Cyndi Lauper is singing La Vie En Rose.
II.
According to Can Grande della Scala
the second level of overlords, meaning:
Her voice in a dog-violet quiver. All the other details are petered out;
the splashes a Gestapo red, chunky taxi-yellow letters receding
one folio at a time. There, someone has patented Cezanne’s handwriting
as a bitterwort font; it curls mandarin language, like cake icing.
Forget about encountering some porcupine fanning its quills
or cheese shoes with their pinky toes and stinky soles
or any merry-go-lover to string bluebells, anklets on both wrists
or tablecloths with crabs of flint, and leftover quail.
III.
According to Can Grande della Scala
the third level of meaning, an apestail:
Hang-gliding between those two mountains is an explorer
no one can see; nor those seaside cabanas eastside, even from up here.
It’s just as well no one believes in fortune cookies in Malaga
this hilltop hideaway, and its backwoods flyman charm;
we’re milder-mannered leaving our tourist goodbyes
on paper napkins, threadbare notes on necessity
on what it means, the sufficiency, the rich traditions
the good-life living, the highlands and great white hoping.
IV.
According to Can Grande della Scala
the fourth level of meaning anagogic:
The head servant decided to be matronal after all;
and served the red mullet in Nymphenburg porcelain.
He’s real, pathfinder to the Pyrenees, these discreet evenings
quiet silverware always shining, always neat alinéa lined up.
It must be an old melodeon love tinwhistling
through the flower market — the hydrangea, the freesia, the larking
emotions unwrapping, lavender spray in disarray like guillemets;
hunting season nears, game-bird jubilee before
the Gabirol thanks,
giving hands to toy heaven?
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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