Divagyrations

your freezer hasn’t worked for a long time, you need to defrost. sunflower seeds for pine nuts work but turmeric for saffron? don’t cut corners in a circle. if you meet someone pretty forget it, she’s not meant for you. go for the abandoned garlic cloves in the corners of bars. they will keep you entertained and cure your masuk angin. cracking utensils, like nigella’s scimitar herb-chopper, are cool, but unnecessary. make a list in your head of places you wanna take tony bourdain to in jakarta and carry it around with you always. invest your money in mutual funds so you can travel to paris when you’re 50. l’institut du monde arabe is the best! fuck the west! wash your jeans before you get them hemmed. machine wash the cheek guards on your helmet, they get stinky fast. you can cut off moldy bits of your cheese, but your spouse might not stand for anything less than by-the-book! make risotto with warm stock. bought stock is OK, but no liquid concocted out of cubes! cook everyday, even if just toasted black latvian bread: spread avocado on it, sprinkle salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper (from the pepper seeds you’ve stored for millennia), voila!, you’ve got yourself an edible kenneth rexroth! never cheat on your wife. that is very important. and don’t expect an electric fan to levitate you out of your misery.

poetry has taught me to experience pain

without having to stop for ice cream

i saw you on the street the other day

but you were a different person

the metro mini ran over a dog this morning

my friend complained of having lost her ability to dream

i tweeted the fact that there is the word asu in asuransi

i do not want to work in KL and leave #jaemanis

she is in ambon at the moment

a butterfly alighted near me once, wings all aflutter, glorious

life should be like that

you alighting near me, all aflutter, glorious

*dicuri dari danar pramesti

i went to toko maju to buy a vintage button

mbak, ada butons Briare nggak?

as always,

i was expecting the best out of people

do you not get disappointed with life, you ask

not having you even as a possibility in my life is disappointment enough

everything else is

child’s playdate

sometimes i wonder if we secretly understand each other

discretely understand each other

yes places get displaced

in memories

and i had trouble remembering where Hotel Kenangan was

it was there

still on the rive gauche of Lethe

next to Shakespeare & Co.

and a bleeding giant

heaven is a displacement on earth

a submerged gorge

and three

constant burgeoning forth of

ten thousand clouds born of

rock and shivering bamboos

i always lose my way

in a forest of

i must do it // this way

can’t see the wood for the

freeze!

giant eels careening in overtly familiar territory

1. my life is not a bare ruined discotheque

2. you have lost a lot of weight from wearing braces

3. he heals his pain of being impure at heart

4. by riding a bicycle

5. around the lake at hangchow

6. plum blossoms stop in mid-air

7. the green water shimmering

8. i cannot feel you

9. this is useless

10. the skylark has lost all its hair

11. i wish i was there

12. instead of chairs moving closer to each other

1. i think i may have found the key

2. no-mind in hyper-intellectual tzu-jan

3. i feel like punching my lcd monitor

4. when i found out it was early 2009

5. i could’ve made you happy

6. i could’ve pulled the rug from under you

7. but i’m in way over my head

8. i might visit you one day

9. you’d greet me in your nightgown

10. in the middle of the day

11. bring out your book of misery

12. i love you and i’m gonna ruin your life for you