shanzai lingers on our pillow while we sigh for foolish things – don’t they remind you of you FW

Look out! Coming Through! You muck hi! Hinges sprung, springing. FW

Liver, the Stomach, the core and the surface, the rock and the lake. These are the gates  and you can either kick them open  or walk through in silence.  Same dif. FW

The gates to the kitchen are the same gates inside out.Any waitress worth her tips knows it. If you lift someone else's tip  when you're cleaning tables, you'll get the gate. FW

remove the ring-around-the-collar

Wonderland’s the park that never was

now that the ghost of you sings

memory of a future sold

the good ol' neighbourhood's just not there

to gam saan mountain gold

but who will answer

who will find your laundry mark

FW

- just fake it

There's no escape

you must become yourself -

Sun Tzu's Art of War

so build yourself a golden bridge

- To know yourself 

In mah-jong the Chief casts two dice to open the gate.

along the snow-blown roads back to town.

Slip and slide through the gate of another year.

When the Kampus Kings play Playmore Junction at New Years,

Gung hey fa choy!

we split the gate and then cut out past Beasley Bluffs 

They swing and they turn

the access, the egress,

gate of to and gate of from,

mouth of Yin and eye of Yang

entrance and exit,

the Mountains of the Blest,

the flow, the discharge,

the winds of ch’i,

GATES The gates to the kitchen are the same gates inside out. Any waitress worth her tips knows it. If you lift someone else’s tip when you’re cleaning tables, you’ll get the gate.  Look out! Coming through! You mucka hi! Hinges sprung, springing.  In mah-jong the Chief casts two dice to open the gate. When the Kampus Kings play Playmor Junction at New Years, we split the gate and then cut out past Beasley Bluffs along the snow-blown roads back to town. Slip and slide through the gate of another year. Gung hey fa choy!  They swing and they turn, gate of to and gate of from, entrance and exit, the flow, the discharge, the access, the egress, the Mountains of the Blest, the winds of ch’i, mouth of Yin and eye of Yang,  The Liver, the Stomach, the core and the surface, the rock and the lake. These are the gates and you can either kick them open or walk through in silence. Same dif. All dressed up and clean-shaven with no where to go, a troublemaker, that one, a yellow peril, an Amor de Cosmos Pariah, a Celestial, a John A. Macdonald mongrel, an Onderdonk question mark, a Royal Commission cuckoo, an Asiatic Exclusion League problem, a huckster, a leper, a depraved opium addict, a slant-eyed devil, a Mongolian, a heathen, bone-scraping ghoul, a pest, a wanton cyprian, a chinkie-chinkie Chinaman, a nignog, an Ishmaelite, a cooley, a yellow belly — just another hungry ghost, just another last spike. That head tax’s just a rusty nail Not the apple of John A’s greedy eye But that brown nail’s been here forever The real last spike is yet to be driven. Now and then Yang's Cuisine And won’t forget the Iron Wok  Never seen no Blue Ginger Down at the Chinatown market And Shanghai City’s really far away But Saigon Kitchen’s further from the coal SHANZAI “There, on the mountain and the sky, On all the tragic scene they stare. One asks for mournful melodies; Accomplished fingers begin to play. Their eyes mid many wrinkles, their eyes, Their ancient, glittering eyes, are gay.”  (from “Lapis Lazuli” by William Butler Yeats) A cigarette that burns with ancient traces that smoke around the neck of far-off places A cigarette made in Russia based on a Chinese label that looks a little like Camel and popular in Germany from Vietnamese street vendors. There’s no escape Sun Tzu’s Art of War – To know yourself you must become yourself– so build yourself a golden bridge –just fake it. Pretend the melody that mourns can’t be believed the trace of yourself still rings You came you saw you conquer'd me shanzai* lingers on our pillow while we sigh for foolish things – don’t they remind you of you but who will answer who will find your laundry mark remove the ring-around-the-collar now that the ghost of you sings to gam saan mountain gold memory of a future sold Pacific ocean steamers full of dreamers win yourself or lose yourself just to be Bruce Lee’s friend how strange and sweet the lichee nut fake salt fake eggs but real olympics learn how to speak fake Chinese Wonderland’s the park that never was the good ol’ neighborhood’s just not there that fake rice in the window reminds me of you an airline ticket to romantic places OOOPS! it’s not the heart has wings but just the mind that clings… *shanzai refers to Chinese imitation and pirated brands and goods