Drifting topoi
the black viola is a kind of purple, really,
as is the black tulip
imagine giving
the poems of Thomas Chatterton
to a teenage existential communist
who's already
slightly rebellious and slightly sad
but this is a dream
or the technique of calling it that
or the topos -
for instance,
(in a dream)
Guo Jian is boiling
crayfish on the Ile des Pins, the telephone
is ringing, a clock's
melting
all over the tablecloth -
the outer limits of the island
are lit by meteoric showers
at the same spot the pilot
crashes the sea-plane
en route to lunch
*
S. asks
'how was your "holiday" ?'
(not very Barthesian of her is it ?)
- as if leaving Sydney
to spend two weeks on an island
in the South Pacific Ocean could only be
a "holiday" -
as if an absolute function
of oceanic cultures
is to provide a "holiday"
&, according
to Barthes,
writers don't have "holidays".
why waste time ?
*
why waste words ?
*
enter -
a topos of entertainment -
there's Barry Crocker
& Barry Crocker's son,
if I was on
advice-giving terms
with Guo Jian
I'd suggest he do
the Crocker family portrait.
Guo Jian from Duyun -
a chaotic southwest Chinese city -
from the Peoples' Liberation Army,
from Beijing, from Tiananmen Square,
from underground
Yuanmingyuan -
a topos of parodic locale
compels Guo
to paint a leaping monkey
escaping every garish picture
entertainment topos -
(monkey's bum)
Barry Crocker,
from loonery to croonery -
(the biz),
would probably prefer
a studio photo, wouldn't he ?
his son might too -
in black & white
or toned a silvery blue -
enhance the bland, dad
the topos of the b&w photo
begins -
" Black & white photos
tell the "truth" -
that's why
insurance agencies
use them "
*
the topos of the gothic university precinct
predictably sets the parameters
for, in fact, several topoi in one essay -
clever zen
(should do the trick)
&, preferable to the pump
of imperatives
or somewhere, over the radar,
monkeys leaping into air
a topos of modesty - twenty-first
century protopersonalities unite
(humbly)
