Imaginary Cities | PC Bangs

hear the wet kittens mewling for their lost mother must we eat bamboo?

Wake up calm. It will be morning soon. Hours disappear, then shatter at the Sound of a phone call (wrong number). Your mobile bleats when it’s time to Change the battery, in that awfully Disconnected voice that’s had reverb Added to it, in the room where you Remain alone. Eat a mandarin. That’s Better. No use trying to go back to Sleep. You've deposited enough hours In that bank to fund your hibernation, This winter, when it comes. It will. Television wakes you again. When did You switch it on anyway? Consenting Adults. Leave the room. Be sure to Wrap yourself in warm clothes, for It is cold this morning. The Minimart’s Always open. Buy cans of cold coffee. Sit outside and watch the businessmen Leaving their apartments, mp3 players Already fitted, a soundtrack you can’t Hear jettisons them towards offices That are already lit. Return to your Room and watch television again. It’s Samuel L. Jackson in a kilt. Leave the Mandarins where they are. Shower. Catch the subway. The morning m...

[This is the full text of an article due to appear in the National Tertiary Education Union's publication Advocate early next year] In August this year I travelled to the Republic of Korea this year as an Asialink resident to teach at Sogang University in Seoul. While I have some teaching experience in Australia and oodles of time notched up as a performance poet, this was to be my first stint as a lecturer in any country. It would also be my first experience of a long-term stay overseas. I could not have asked for a more diverse and energetic city to teach in. The population of Seoul’s greater metropolitan area is approximately the same as the whole of Australia and it is rightly known as one of the most dynamic cities in the world. Indeed, “dynamic” is a word that you hear often in Korea. Since the devastation of the Korean War (in which most of the Korean peninsula was rendered uninhabitable), Seoul has transformed itself into a world city. Its subway system makes Barry Jones’ ...

Underneath the makkolli moon We’ll get drunk & spit at stars Roll cars out into roads & fight Trespass on the night’s property Underneath the makkolli moon We’ll fall in love & then forget Throw bottles at the alley cats Invade Poland, or whistle tunes Underneath the makkolli moon We’ll wind our frozen watches Shout obscenities at a shadow Boil milk from subway sparks Underneath the makkolli moon We’ll step on broken glasses Make pain from frozen garbage Shatter poems with two sighs Underneath the makkolli moon We’ll murder all our tomorrows Draw moustaches on our heroes Drown punches in tears of milk Underneath the makkolli moon We’ll create a visible canvas Spraying slogans on ourselves Running away from the fires Underneath the makkolli moon We’ll pretend we never existed Smile at liquid breaths of dawn Edit our own white footprints