an old writer and his words

  • TURNING

    It has been six full turnsof the shēngxiào since the dayyou brought a baby dragoninto the world and as quicklyset it free, never looking back.It is again my year, and youhave been gone for two decadesbut I was born of waterand so it is perhaps naturalthat on special daysI continue to honoryour memory with my…

    Lou Faber

  • WRITING

    I have a Chinese friendwho says I should write poemsabout pomegranates and chrysanthemums.A Japanese business acquaintance sayspoems should be populated by sakura and Lotus.I tend to think of their advicein the deadest days of winterwhen snow presses against the houseas if seeking its faint warmth.As I thinly sliced the tender shootsof bamboo and dampen the…

    Lou Faber

  • ONLY ONCE

    I don’t know who decided that we,as a group would go to the jai alai frontonthat evening, but as the junior-most memberof the management team it seemedat that moment less of a request or evenan invitation and more a command performance.I knew nothing about jai alai and the namesof the players, all in Portuguese might…

    Lou Faber

  • SERIOUSLY AMAZON?

    I am struggling to understandjust who is the target marketwith a thirty piece atof rubber ducks for the baththat Amazon wants to sell me.I did have a rubber duckyfor the bath when I was a childbut he was singular, and whenhe partially cracked and drownedI buried him in the backyardand vowed never to ownwaterfowl again,…

    Lou Faber

  • NIGHT VISITOR

    Across Bedford Avenuein the fourth floor windowthe antique bird printis bathed in the lightof a Chinese ginger jar lamp.Her shadow dancesacross the wall, armswrapped tightly around herselfin the sway of Terpsichoresinging her melancholy song.I hear onlythe cacophony of the drunkon the cornerbraying to the moonand the rumbleof the lorryon Tottenham Court Road. First Published in…

    Lou Faber

  • GOOD LUCK WITH THAT

    The fortune cookies of my childhoodwere far more interesting, or somy memory would have it.The cookies offered wisdomof the East, or so it seemedto a 10-year-old, but perhapsit was the same mumbo-jumboin the bulk print today, nowthat the cookies, which oncetasted good, unlike today’sorigami cardboard, werefolded by hand, and therewere no lotteries then, sothere was…

    Lou Faber

  • A MATTER OF TIME

    It was onlya matter of time,and the time has comewhen the Chinesewould abandonthe time honored“please to beplacing the Tab Awithinside the sloton Part E,”and insteadmerely showundecipherablepictures of parts,so that withbut a singleset of instructionsthey can frustratebuyers in all nations.

    Lou Faber

  • BLESSED

    Barchu, for the slugs of the Chinese knockoff AK47 which tore through his legs, twisting to avoid the artery and nerves. Barchu, for the moon hanging in the frosted night seeking shelter in the mist cutting into me, lashing me to reality. Barchu, for their memory the small circle of candles that burn eternally in…

    Lou Faber

  • PLEASE TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS

    At least some Chinese manufacturershave seemingly grown tired of ourendless mockery of their instructions. No longer do they tell me “please to beinserting the extended aspectof part A into part B in the slotted area.” Now they give me wordless instructions,a series of pictures with lettered partswhich seems easier until, after unpacking the many pieces,…

    Lou Faber

  • PRACTICE THIS

    He is, he claims, a practitionerof feng shui, and will, fora nominal fee, arrange our homein the harmony it requires. His fee, of course, is nominalto him only, and hardly onewe would incur with the expensesof a new home, with twoof too many things, and noneof some necessities, whichour local merchants will providefor their own…

    Lou Faber