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We hung our lanterns by the door, ate loveletters,
left them on the floor---trailed the crumbs along the path,
watching the ants join in one line. Then, we’d crush them
with our hands, followed them till the end---
found them saturated in the sand.
Oranges---sweet as the crickets’ chirping
BURP; your mistake. And we laugh at it like it’s a joke.
Fireflies! They wear themselves round your neck---they’re
beautiful, I swear---but I didn’t know how to and I didn’t
care. You took a snail and threw it into the pond and
next thing I know, you’re gone! Take off to some
foreign land. But, don’t worry! You’ll be back! Next year! Again!
But, next year --- today, I see no Koi. The pond’s dead. And
the air’s too stale to let me inhale. Oranges are
sour ‘now’. You don’t eat loveletters anymore---you write them
and I heard---you swore. Crickets are such a bugger ‘now’
and the weather’s too uncool. But that’s the way it’s always
been---but ‘now’ has melted away its bliss. So you simply
shut the door and blame me for the ants; still on the floor.
You leave me outside; alone. It’s
dark: Those glowing beads have lost their spark
and we don’t light our lanterns anymore.
- Title: Lanterns Lit
- Artist: 2egg4
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Description:
Wrote this in reminiscence years ago. About a childhood friend & me; how different backgrounds shaped that friend.
I'm Chi (with a Chinese traditional perspective/morals) & was celebrating ChiNewYear but my friend isn't Chi but celebrates both years with me. He grows up after that year & sticks to his own other cultural morals. He also grows to become more aware of what's cool/not so as to be accepted into his own society.
The jumpy tone --- excited child's point of view. - Date: 12/17/2009
- Tags: lanterns
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