Tao Lin

book party
 



i had advertisements
 
in a duffel bag
 
and it was heavy
 
so i had to leave it, the bag,
 
by a blue hole
 
that was there
 
'blue hole,' i thought
 
and forgot the other thing
 
and started to go somewhere 
 
but there was a pretty thing
 
so i went to it
 
and felt nervous
 
and the pretty thing went away
 
and i felt sad
 
and remembered
 
where i was going
 
but forgot again
 
about, uh, so,
 
i went there
 
to the thing
 
that was pretty
 
and it, i, um,
 
it's really pretty




**





i think this section of the bookstore is called received knowledge,'
          i said to the four-year old girl  




she was acting strange
and it was making me creative
uh, she was being strange, like, her dress was a pocket,
and she had a hamster in a different pocket
attached to the back of her head
 
we stood on the escalator
'you should write a book about rich people
who do drugs,' i said
to an old man, who looked immortal
'rich people are clever,' i said
and he said something clever, which i ignored
because i didn't want, uh,
 
and i told him my dream, that i put my hand in a muffin
'please don't,' the muffin said, and i stepped on it
ate it, and ran at a concrete wall,
a wide indestructible wall, with metal reinforcements—
 
the other side was pancakes!
i opened my mouth
my mouth was maple syrup
and i ate it, and a banana tree
fell through the pancakes
and i saw the tree's face
a face of complete boredom and despair
with a leafy twig over one eye
 
 
 

***




i feel nervous
 



i crawl in a pink tunnel
 
there are fish in a hole at the end of the tunnel
 
another hole has hamsters
 
i make blue, red, pink, and purple paste with the fish
 
i use the paste to paint the hamsters all these colors
 
i make a hamster paste and i paint battle paint on my face
 
i go to battle in a forest of bears wearing a bearsuit
 
i stab a human in the eye
 
i take the eye home and i make eye paste
 
i paste a toaster to the side of my face
 
i plug in the toaster
 
i use extension cords and i turn on the bathtub
 
when the bathtub is full i make a paste with my legs
 
the paste is yellow and red
 
i use the paste to write 'i am sad' on the bathroom mirror
 
i eat the rest of the leg paste
 
i eat when i feel sad




****
 
 
 
 
you make me want to write like you
 



we take a boat and use rivers to get to alaska
 
we build a house and paint it bright orange so you can see it from space
 
i go to space and come back and say 'you can see it from space'
 
you say 'i want to see it from space'
 
you go to space and do not come back
 
i capture a polar bear with poison darts and paint it bright orange
 
i paint my head bright orange and go to space
 
in space i paint an asteroid bright orange and i ride it to a planet with aliens
 
the aliens make me clean their houses
 
when they aren't looking i paint their houses bright orange
 
i run away and they capture me and put a ring around my head to control me
 
i grow my head and make the ring break
 
they inject me with poison to stop me from growing
 
i eat my face by biting my lips and eating them
 
my face is bleeding




*****
 
 
 

i want no more friends
 



let me drink iced coffee
salman rushdie: let me
live my life?
you like baseball
more than writing
 
today is an alone-day
 
i look at it
and just want to fill it with caffeine
 
i'm talking about foreheads
 
i think i'm talking about foreheads
 
i don't know
 
i don't know you anymore




******
 
 
 
 
i like it when the coffee goes into me
 



before i drink the coffee i yawn and look at the coffee
someone else will drink the coffee
 
come here and look at my poetry
and say only good things about it
 
what do you think?
want to think?
 
'i'm going to the library to write poetry,'
i thought from inside the library
 
at work i stare at four bananas and the four bananas are there
when work is over the four bananas will not be there
 
before and after the thing
are more things
 
this is my poetry
because i typed it
 
and a thing is there
and i want to be there