Sunday, August 17, 2008

Haiku

Haiku is a perfect form.  Rarely have I seen poems with more power to describe the undescribable, the unparaphrasable.  Poets like the master Basho and later Issa, narrate humanity's relationship to mysterious and beautiful nature.  With a samurai-sword-like economy of language, haiku poets lift the curtain on the mundane, revealing the divinity inherent in the reality of existence.

The current master of the form is my friend Lisa.  She nursed me through a nightmarish, Orwellian layover in the Denver International Airport with haiku.  The following is a selection:

Listen you cheap slut
I want my peanuts quickly
Pretzels mean nothing

Stop screaming at me
I hope your bags get stolen
Your kid is ugly


Her husband Miah, while not as prolific, certainly adds to the discourse:

Security guard
mystery sore on his lips
digging through panties

Stay tuned for preliminary reflections on Las Cruces, the desert, random killing, the uniformity of the academy, back hair, and poison.  And check out my new pictures on Flickr.com.  I'm very handsome.

Monday, August 11, 2008

In which I move to New Mexico and get drunk...

I live with New Mexicans.  There is a rich cultural history here, stretching back four hundred years.  My roommate has distant relation with the founders of the state (?) and a penchant f0r Ten High bourbon (!).  I have learned the following phrases in "garbage" New Mexico Spanish:  (which I will transliterate to my drunken best)  al petcho to the chest, what New Mexicans say when chugging beer, or at least describing the direction to which they chug it; hue (whey) I don't know how to spell it, but it translates as "bitch" or "fucker" and is friendly unless the accusator is angry;  chingator means the penis, but the accent is on the "a" making it sound like alligator, and I understand that the phrase is best emphasized with a forearm unfolding on a beer pong table.  
I'm having fun with New Mexicans.  They like to shoot things in the desert.  I have plans to go to Juarez, the second largest city in Mexico.  I have drunk 14 budlights.