she loved me for a matter of seconds but her affair with the monks promises to be a lifelong obsession hey that hurts— right there doc can you lance jab pop it cut it out? look at this it’s a postcard she sent me—monks! you think that’s trivial? wait till you see the photos! monks…

timpani crash /tuk-tuk caged verandah /air-con little bells /squid vendor fecund waterway /chao phraya police helmet /city intersection pollution viaduct /sky train hardware section /chinatown pirate tape stand /thanon khao san shining stupa /urban wat

the choice of sunglasses is impor-tant but on the maple leaf? ray-bans are out too miami vice … beatle specs no dead giveaway (tint in sunlight) chem-mart? anonymous average ok collared shirt i’d prefer a gaudy hunter s. thompson hawaiian no. but beige is a city colour camouflage same with pants & as for loafers?…

it is the year 2542 BE – in bangkok the streets are flooded with people 543 years in advance of the western world but only 7 hours ahead of GMT – in the meantime football grips the nation & entropy invades every available thanon & soi art flourishes in the city moving slowly north towards…

life – cough-cough go-go fast-fast slow-slow break-break flow-flow honk-honk hel-lo where-you go-go tuk-tuk hi-ho same-same no-no thao-rai cheap-cheap silk-silk wat-wat guess-so o-kay go-go gem-shop strip-show no-no go-slow wait-wait oh-ho go-go bang-kok tuk-tuk cough-cough stop-go one-two i-know left-left no-no go-go tuk-tuk cough-cough khao-san face-mask whiz-whiz cough-cough poi-son cough-cough tuk-tuk cough-cough go-go same-same don’t-stop cough-cough car-fume tuk-tuk…

given the unenviable task of delivering mail in a cantonese walled city charged with entropy & chaos criss-crossing its aerial corridors conduits they call them linked towers that change positions days how the garbage piles up forming strata to be studied by future archaeologists – he can never decipher the old city’s next move &…

my name is mud as in good i help you with thai translation i am monkey & i am crazy good at takraw & at takraw kicks—do you see me where i practice? yes? at the beach with a ball of flotsam-styrofoam & a piece of string tied to a tree so i can kick…

come here blossom fall down here on my lap & let me run my fingers through your delicate pink petals the way you used to like it in spring- time when you were all in bloom oh blossom remember every season is another reason to love you tender blossom come on back over here don’t…

pai bursting through the fog to fly in low across the rice paddies dumping its deadly load & setting the pond a-tremble with aftershocks the size of frogs now skipping the mountains of pai untold numbers of karen separatists pray fervently for a rain cloud to carpet bomb the ponds of burma we saw one…

fireworks rupture the temple on the hill’s serenity the interior’s panorama suffocated by a buddhist vision of hell flavoured with more than a dash of hindu horror – here’s a massacre of men & women sawn in half by grinning & willing fellow men & women here’s old buddha himself count his ribs this is…

armed with their hideouts & slingshots & smiles they gather at nightfall beside a rocky river road to compete in monied contests dodge tuk-tuks & flurries of laughter now pulling the notes from their pockets & placing them on the road’s river brown & then throwing their thongs from line-marks towards jackpots of fluttering notes…