Expect a most agreeable letter, for not being overburdened with subject (having nothing at all to say), there shall be no
check to my genius from beginning to end.
--Jane Austen
how should another know your mind?
And there was a beautiful view
But nobody could see.
Cause everybody on the island
Was saying: Look at me! Look at me!
--Laurie Anderson
will he discern what quickens you?
Saturday, March 20, 2010 @ 8:35 AM
apparently, once I get started I have problems with stopping. A descriptive on a Chinese immigrant's take on Chinatown way Down Under. A solitary figure on a sidewalk. one.
***
An oasis of Asian hubbub, contrasting sharply with the clipped garble issuing from the tongues of white skin and fair hair; China had invaded Down Under. Oversized dragonflies halted in motion on the sidewalk, representations of immigrant bilingual hopes of financial success manifesting themselves in loud garish, shades of neon- calligraphy in fluorescent. Liberated day workers thronging the streets, sheltered by supernaturally red lanterns, dangling joyously from a threshold festooned with glaring, invasive white bulbs, Chinese characters, and the oft-quoted spirit of festivity. Intricately carved butterflies flutter, enveloping concealed speakers blasting Chinese anthems of overwhelming, all-encompassing happiness. A lone, bespectacled man pauses by the sidewalk, drowning in the very Asianness of it all. An ocean away from family, but still; home. Home, compressed into a few thousand square feet.