money

Gravity fades – out – people
float off the face of the watching earth.
Feet stretch down – scuffing – nothing.

Velocity silent and fierce
escorts us – memory to memory,
place to place – hurtling –
tourists lost in our own – lives –
raising not one puff of dust
of feet – grown delicate – as fruit
on the stem. Place names peel
away – recollate. A drive down
the Peninsula on 101 –
merges – with 3 out of
Taipei. The noise walls –
tan, rust, grey – are one.
The warehouses, the logos
alit, agleam – one, one.
Your breath tight – ens and –
your mind rivets: which
place is this? Which Toyota? Which
partner?

Nature is no better. A North China
mountain bucks – balloons up
underfoot – you cling –
quaking to it – deep breath – ant on the skirts
of an impatient queen.

5-24--6-2-2008