So Shanxi TV want to interview me.
This is my chance.
To say something that people will
never forget.

" In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes" said Andy Warhol, well I have less time than him.

If you had five minutes of fame
what would you say?
You have waited all your life
for this moment.
The cameras are on you
and the world is waiting.

What would you say?

Would you speak of those
who fall into hell or those who
fall into heaven?

Maybe you would tell the world
that you love your country, but
dreamed last night that the dogs of
Fenyang barked no more.

Or maybe like Ji Xianlin, you would say something about growing flowers for the benefit of all.

What would you say?

I wanted words to drop on my head
"Topic sentences" he said
Last of the new poets
The last one on this side of the world
But he was speaking another language
I tried to conjure up words
Henry V at Agincourt
Dr King in Washington
'A Hard Rains Gonna Fall'
From some town hall
Words, words, words
I don't know what to write.
My brain has no way with words
Dylan says ' It's hard, it's hard and
it's hard...I know!
But he says 'I can'
He tells me about Sylvia Plath and
Ernest Hemingway
And Three Hundred Tang Poems
And something stared in my soul
A story of forgotten words
"Write" he said.
I began to make my own way.

I lived in Shenzhen, China, for my 6th and 7th grades.
- China was AMAZING.

In China, blond hair is unusual, I stood out like neon
and touching blond hair was considered good luck.

In a train station, if I stood still, I could draw a curious mob
- especially in the provinces like Heubi and Shanxi. I was in
more than a few selfies but people were polite and respectful.

China is much more advanced than the U.S..
Everything is new, clean and modern - the Internet is faster.
Most trains are bullet trains that travel 325kph (>200mph).
There are more than 10 new, gleaming cities larger (and newer) than New York.

An App called WeChat (used on your phone) runs the world.
imagine Facebook, iMessage, PayPal and Uber combined
- with that one App you could do anything.

At restaurants, you paid your bill at your table using WeChat from a QR code that the electronic corner of your table displayed. You even paid street vendors with the app - no one used cash.

Cameras are everywhere - if you break a law like jaywalking and BBBZZZZ you get a text and the fine is deducted from your WeChat account - all automatically.

Public TV screens, located on corners, show recent violations with the perps picture and the fine they paid - again, automatic.

Does this sound Orwellian? Well, maybe, but Chinese police
don't **** people - or even engage people for minor offenses.

America, you're broke and on the edge of being a third world country.

Yeah, yeah, I know that China is free-market-communist
and certainly imperfect - but if you saw China, you'd be impressed
and you'd know the ugly truth - America has squandered it's wealth on military macho and forty years of war. China's last, small war was in 1980 (With Vietnam who they beat in 3 weeks and 2 days).

Middle America looks almost bombed-out with closed businesses
(even before the pandemic) - but in China, you can’t look anywhere
without seeing building cranes - like a forest of trees. A physical
illustration of Americas loss of wealth.

I LOVE America - it’s sad to see. We've gotta wake up.

"If there are flowers flowers
must come out to the road"

The four Black Vinegar clans:
From the North - Shanxi,
Chinkiang (or Zhenjiang) from the South,
Black vinegar from Sichuan,
And red worker vinegar of Fujian.

Furious flowers wait
across the Realms
across the Changes
"and the spiraling dead,
our black revival, our black vinegar,
our hands, and our hot blood."

we Vinegars
We got this thing
this Thing called Radar Love

(cue song)
(montage of Black Vinegar & Furious Flowers)

Today is the first of September
The end of summer in Taiyuan
Hopes of love expired, summer lapsed away
Too impeccable to last.

The crickets put their songbooks away
The long march over for another year
Hearts moving, yet without a dream
Their music web will sing a different tune.

One last walk by the Fen
and memories of dizziness.
Faintly the steps begin to grieve
each one heavy with the waning light.

And now the cold kiss of a Shanxi winter
invites me to walk by its placid stream.
And drink its cooling breath
More vivid than the sunsets final glow.