Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Lilith encounters Christian nationalism

At the back of Valley of the Temples cemetery, up against the Ko`olau, the Wang monument features images of Lincoln and Washington tucked beneath a cross. On the other side of a nearly closed stone rectangle are large reliefs of the American capitol building and the white house. Inside the rectangle there are many niches behind black stone. No one seems to be buried there. Lilith and I found one of our worker friends there out front with a hose, watering grass (the pigs keep turning it up, he explained). The guy who bought the monument is 20 years old, he told me. He's married to one of the bosses, so he should know. He wanted it to be bigger than the monument for the Chinese general down the hill. The general, our friend explained, was a freedom fighter in China, anti-communist; he is beloved in his community here. Ah, see, he actually did something, I said. And he's even dead. Christian nationalism has its own rules.

 

Saturday, November 30, 2024

The man who loves numbers

 

[I finished Lilith Walks 2 just before the election, but the encounters just keep coming.]

The man on the curb had moved to the sidewalk this morning, where he leaned against the wall. Coffee, cigarette pack, cell phone were in place. His hand trembled as he lit another cigarette. He wore his usual Seattle Seahawks shirt and Hawai`i board shorts. I told him my daughter works at Lumin Stadium. See, connections, he said. His mother was born in Tacoma, which is where my daughter went to college. As Lilith and I started to pull away, I stopped. "Remember you said that your twins were born on November 4," I said. "Yes." "I didn't tell you then that November 4 was the day my father died." More connections. Sometimes sad ones. He loves numbers. Looked at my shirt, which reads Nike 1972 (I have no idea where this shirt came from)." 1972. That was an important year for me," he said, tapping his knuckles against his head. "Oh yeah, I got married, he said, and then the twins came along in 1973." Sticking with numbers, I told him we watched _Beatles '64_ last night. He'd been in 8th grade, he said, and looked at my hiking boots. "You get Beatles boots den, you were cool," he said, lifting the yellow coffee cup to his mouth.

Monday, November 18, 2024

Saturday, November 16, 2024

My reading/talk at UH-West Oahu in late October is now on youtube

You can access the talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-5Xkyw869E

I talked about why I write and how I write and tried to make it accessible to young writers, one of whom I once was . . .


Monday, November 4, 2024

Young boys chanting

"Good morning!" yelled a boy (of 12?) at me; he was throwing a football with a friend at Ahuimanu Park. I pointed out that it was 3 p.m., and so he modulated to afternoon. As I passed by, he and his friend started yelling "Donald Trump for president!" I barked a bit, and the one boy yelled, "have a great day!" I wished him one, too. Considered turning around to talk to them. He kept his chant going. Lilith and I kept going, too.

Sunday, November 3, 2024

Lilith and I walk uphill


Lilith and I didn't go to the cemetery this morning. We went uphill instead of down. As we left the cemetery yesterday, our two friends at the entry box informed us that Harris is dumb and talks in "word salad"; they said she was installed by oligarchs, having gotten no votes. (I said I voted for her for vice president, so I wasn't bothered.) And yes, we started speaking in high voices. A woman stood between us, wanting to buy flowers. Uncle John cut them for her with the paper cutter, leaving bits of color on the table and ground. The look on her face.

Thursday, October 31, 2024

I and You: Elegy 31

I and You


Eucalyptus is tree

Bark is not

Eucalyptus is tree

Sap is not

I am alive

You are not

I talk to

You who don’t

Talk to me

Which of us

Is more lonely