Saturday, May 29, 2010

Ode to an Unknown Seamstress

Chinese Lady with nimble slave fingers,
we are separated by 10,000 container ships of hockey pucks
an ocean of petroleum dildos
and toaster ovens
and microchips
I feel your presence in every youth size mesh practice jersey,
the goalie masks you tended with your beautiful hands
and passed down the road to me, your secret American lover.
Where do your thoughts go, lonely lady, when the 11th hour of your shift clicks off
and the silence of the assembly table becomes like a hum of angels and you can not focus?
Do you think of me in my cardboard kingdom, absently picking 44 delicious padded wrist guards for a sporting goods store in San Diego?
You placed them in a box with tender mercies and now I touch what your fingers touched. You can not pass a message across these oceans because
likely you would lose your job for acting independently. But I know you have thought about it.
What would you say to me?
What color are your eyes?
Where do you live, my love?
What are your dreams?
How can I help you?
I am here for you always and receive only the fullness of your love and desire for love in the tremendous volume of boxes filled with skate blade cozies and jock straps and roller blade stickers.
You focus on that needle pounding the goalie knee pads like a Samurai slicing the chaos away with his holy blade. I am your slave forever, Chinese lover.


Zhōngguó nǚ núlì yǔ língqiǎo de shǒuzhǐ,
Wǒmen xiānggé 10000 qūgùnqiú túlún jízhuāngxiāng chuán
1 Hǎiyáng shíyóu jiǎ yángjù
Kǎo lú hé kǎo miànbāo jī
Hé wēi xīnpiàn
Wǒ juéde měi yīgè qīngnián wǎng guīmó de zuòfǎ qiú yī nín de guānglín,
Shǒuményuán miànzhào nǐ hé nǐ dì měilì de shǒu wǎngwǎng
Bìng tōngguò le wǒ de dàolù shàng, nǐ de mìmì měiguó qíngrén.
Nǐ de xiǎngfǎ qù nǎlǐ, jìmò de nǚshì, dāng nǐ diǎnjī guānbì 11 xiǎoshí lúnbān
Hé jíhuì biǎo chénmò biàn de xiàng yīgè tiānshǐ, hēng hēng, nǐ bùnéng zhòngdiǎn shì shénme?
Nǐ xiǎngqǐ wǒ zài wǒ de zhǐbǎn wángguó, xīnbùzàiyān de tiāoxuǎn le yījiā tǐyù yòngpǐn shāngdiàn zài shèngdìyàgē 44 měiwèi de hù wàn diàn?
Nín fàngzhì zài yǔ cíbēi xiāng nèi, xiànzài nǐ de shǒuzhǐ chùmō wǒ gǎndòng. Nǐ kěyǐ bù tōngguò kuàyuè hǎiyáng de xiāoxi, yīnwèi zhèxiē
Nǐ kěnéng huì shīqù dúlì sīkǎo nǐ de gōngzuò. Dàn wǒ zhīdào nǐ shì xiǎng de.
Nǐ huì zěnme shuō wǒ ne?
Nǐ de yǎnjīng shì shénme yánsè?
Nǐ zhù zài nǎlǐ, wǒ de ài?
Wǒ zěnme bāng nǐ?
Wǒ zài zhèlǐ wéi nǐ shǐzhōng zhǐ néng shōu dào nǐ de ài hé duì zài yǔ huábǎn hé lúnhuá tiē zhǐ kē qí sī xiāng liàng hěn dà, chōngmǎn ài de kěwàng fēngmǎn.
Nǐ bǎ zhòngdiǎn fàng zài zhège chōngjí xiàng rìběn wǔshì dāo qiēpiàn yǔ tā de shénshèng de hǔnluàn líkāi shǒuményuán hùxī zhēn. Wǒ yǒngyuǎn shì nǐ de núlì, zhōngguó de qíngrén.
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Man in the Van by Oggy Bleacher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.