"Incoming"

A new poem. They said it couldn't be done!

"Incoming"

The sound-bullet labyrinths
its way into my head. All
the past remembered as well
as it was previously forgotten.

That heavy, candy-sticky 1998 feeling,
when I was unsure of the map of
the map I was tracing into the road
that kept churning itself to mud

under the wheels. It made little
sense then, even less now,
though I seem to understand something
new about that map of a map,

and this new map of a map of a map
of now (then, whatever and whenever)

that we are creating together,
certain and unsure, and absolutely,

absolutely yes.

Godful

the desire to stop desire, silence
as the ultimate benefactor of grace, a
godless void full of god.

Musically youthy

oily, seedy provocation relents
for the tongue in groove machine thing
and only then with a stutter-step
of recognition.

that's how lived-in arias are born
and punkily careful recklessness
dies. this ain't new york or l.a.
being painted in thick, toxic strokes.

the romantic images are better,
and t-shirt-ready:
an idol pounding back another
party cup, forehead bleeding,

getting buried in the streets
among hangers-on, junkies,
girlfriends, groupies,
confused cabbies, bored cops.

but before that did-up death croak,
he carefully sculpted his hair
behind stage, in the glass
of a pinball machine.

A newbie's journey through Japanese: The very small archive

Here are the posts I have written so far for Nihongo Ichiban. I just completed a new one earlier this week about the first steps to learning kanji, but it seems the site's owner has taken a hiatus, seeing as his last post was last month. Until the new one goes up, here are the previous entries of my series "A newbie's journey through Japanese":

A newbie’s journey through Japanese
My first post, outlining my reasons behind wanting to learning the language.


A newbie's journey through Japanese: Step 1 -- Learn the kana
Explaining why it's important to learn kana and not use romaji as a crutch.


A newbie's journey through Japanese #3: All about Japanese podcasts
I walk readers through some of the podcasts I listen to that help increase my understanding and fluency.


Thanks, guys. I hope these are helpful.