Tuesday, July 05, 2005

The Poetry Shed: Day 2

Today again we began by a ten-minute warming-up. Write on anything off the top of your head. Here is my piece.

China is Haina in Maori
Japan is Hapana
anywhere you go in this world
Hapana is considered a part of Haina

Everywhere I go in the world
the Chinese talk to me in Chinese
of an unknown variety
and I smile incomprehension
vaguely, blankly
they don't seem to care
they keep talking to me in Chinese

But then there are various Chinese
in one single Haina, and I can tell!

That restaurant downtown is run by the people
from Continental China (they use simplified characters)
this one by the ethnic Chinese from Malaysia (they have Laksa)
this one the Peruvian Chinese
the one on Dominion Rd by Vietnamese
and that Korean restaurant in Howick
is run by Korean people, of course, but they are
the ethnic Chinese from Northeastern China

See what I mean? Haina is never one
Haina is multiple, always has been
so probably it makes sense to
include Hapana in Haina

Call me Chinese, if you so wish
I don't care, I remain one of them!