(”Olympics In China” modified) reports on goons and thugs Cousin Jack knows junk Not a gaff for Cafferty, Cafferty et. al. cousins driven on edges One’s traveling by Sudan, just wanted Janjaweed’s fleeing victims She, a peacekeeper Slaughters on memory pause Bad news through Khartoum – Melamine* from China Don’t they eat dogs in China She is insulted, Oil for China is of utmost importance She tells her husband Her Mother is from Panama, Darfur intrudes: Maybe, safety in Chad, Leave me alone, she screams, Your Mother had Not now, Cousin Jinyan Not now. Get us Her Hubby told me hearing the torch would She’s worried from monks in the teahouse – mad Han hegemony awry Molly doubts the torch is coming. Odd call I’m confused, heard Odd call home. She She seems to know Tibet Not a Westerner Speaks of forty days and forty nights Odd call home. She will not peruse the news She’s singing sweetly Seems she News of spring colors and flights. In China No calls, Tell me if a llama died greeting Molly of Lhasa *Melamine, a chemical derived from coal was found in pet food that killed dogs and cats. It is used in China as a make-believe protein that has no nutritional value. See: “In China, Additive To Animals’ Food Is An Open Secret,” New York Times, April 30, 2007, pp. A1, A8, by David Barboza and Alexei Barrionuevo. “Poisoned Toothpaste in Panama Is Believed to Be From China,” New York Times, May 19, 2007, p.A3 “2 Activists Are Under House Arrest and Barred From Leaving China,” New York Times, May 19, 2007, p. A3. “At Shuttered Gateway to Tibet, Unrest Simmers Against Chinese Rule,” New York Times, March 26,2008. p. A7.
My four cousins,
tale of tails wagging: one
situational Olympics
past Reno.
knows gold when he
C.N.N.’s it
diplomacy the injured cat
truth in poison pet food
op. cit., and three
of cynicism, bravely
continuing to pass
the torch of
symbolism
a UN worker who
to survive her gambit
into humanitarianism,
come home intact
to her husband, see
the Olympics as
honored guest, perhaps
but
stopped in a camp
for a chat
listened for awhile
to tales of genocide
from refugees of Darfur
too starved to indulge grief for
the dignitary just yet,
a Darfur drudgery one
asked why the worker cried
my child watching cartoons
sends e-mail that
the dog died
supporter of Sudan
did the canine in
the Darfur woman of dead child says
has lost her appetite for politics
and a veto of sanctions.
Khartoum is happy, and
flies in weapons
for the final solution,
but politely, because diplomacy
to China, market dream
for every company
drooling over
billions of customers
who has a distant cousin
with Chinese roots
to, for God’s sake,
be discreet
hates her husband’s
(as she imagines it)
asian eyes, though
he speaks fluent Spanish
(Chinese, English, Tagalog),
quite a bungee linguist is he
“Will UN troops
protect us”,
a woman wants to know.
Srbrenica she thinks
to herself, but won’t
dare say
she demurs, but
even here
another message for her
I’m doing good work
cough medicine,
diethylene glycol
from China
it says,
a minor counterfeit
resulting in death
I’m doing good work
is under house arrest
for protest
tickets for
2008 Summer Games
she’s not to worry –
sending flowers,
has tickets, but
travel through Tibet,
I called cousin Molly
the Tibetan trapped in China
called home to Aba
Sichuan Province, China
to hear the brooding
many dead in Tibet, from Lhasa
protests spreading
with soldiers and
agent provocateurs
uniforms and robes
plainclothes
Thinks runners in Peru.
home. She sells
Buddhist statues still,
swears she doesn’t know
the Dalai Lama
she wants to
go to Peru
speaks in riddles.
is not Peru
she’s a Tibetan, yet
with biblical aspirations
140 dead, and
it seems she seeks
to go to Peru
from Lhasa,
or even Aba
or Luhuo.
Sichuan food for thought.
on the phone in English
an old Irish song,
“cockles and mussels
are dead in Peru.”
An odd call is this. Arresting…
might be going to
a re-education camp for torture
to learn spelling and about
Szechuan Restaurants in Peru
Aba green with
a flood of soldiers.
Whirlybirds hover.
she sells
Buddhist statues still
with cockles and mussels
alive in Peru
merry or odd. I
wonder
how is Peru?
on the high road
sweet and narrow
in spirit alive
with a torch
and a ticket to heaven
—- Douglas Gilbert
(Henry Le Châtelier)
