Bite-Sized Life

Chop Suey Poems


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Mao shi meili de


Norma Jean Fishmonger is wearing bib overalls

and living in my refrigerator behind

the jar of slimy, fermented soybeans

no one's bothered to open.

Juicy fillings are best dipped in chili

but my mother's dumplings are always

non-fat. Give Porter some Black

Baccara roses on long stems. Then,

he'll agree to spin yarn because he

loves being a soft long-haired cactus.

The sun smells like gunpowder.

I can hear the apple pies in the world

moon me. Hard apples sing exquisitely

in muted green. Porter and Clemons live

in small apartments next to the Taj Mahal.

Juicy fillings are best served as bait for hyena

and my mother's dumplings always

swim in salty fish juice.

Van Morrison is John Lee Hooker's favorite

white blues singer. My bad, I left his dinner

in the rain and then our neighbor's dog

peed on it. Far out, man, when's the party?

The cat danced the jig and flew away

to nest with the ravens. Porter didn't growl

or hide under the bed when the UPS man

rang the doorbell. I was beside myself

because I was assigned to work on

the integration chapter which already

had 39 unresolved review comments.

Clemons will be banned from public transit in France

for eating 2 bags of dehydrated horse urine eggs a day,

each bag $20 out of our bank account.

The fragrant strange smelling eggplant sat

on the dish rack. Norma Jean must eat cactus

at least 9 months out of the year

when her days are always prenatal.

Mao shi meili de. Fat cats love to

ferment medium-rare hamburgers

in barrows. The Sky taste like

rancid butter in its own museum.

Norma Jean Fishmonger has stepped out

of the refrigerator barefoot

and weightless in white to eat my chow mein.


                                                                        Priscilla Lee