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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BACKGROUND AND DESIGN, by KAREN SWENSON Poet's Biography
First Line: On tv in a bangkok shop window
Last Line: From fiend to lover and back.
Subject(s): Culture Conflict; Music & Musicians; Thailand
First Line: On tv in a bangkok shop window
Last Line: From fiend to lover and back.
Subject(s): Culture Conflict; Music & Musicians; Thailand
On TV in a Bangkok shop window,
Michael Jackson is a video
rose centering a ruffled nosegay
of Thai silk frocks. He shifts
like the illusion of black and white tiles
I changed as a child - black on white
to white on black - from ghoul to lover
and back while fantasy battalions
of fiends sprout from manholes and graves.
America's undead armies dance again
in Bangkok following the snake-hip slither
of the dark General and his incandescent eyes.
In their school uniforms a crowd
of brown young faces solemnly watch this one
brown face, a manufacture made
uniform by stardom.
I contemplate my white against
this background and his dark cross
in America as he shifts
from fiend to lover and back.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
ALIEN WOMEN; SONGKHLA, THAILAND by KAREN SWENSON
AN AMERICAN IN BANGKOK by KAREN SWENSON
FISHERMAN IN SONGKHLA by KAREN SWENSON
GETTING A PURCHASE by KAREN SWENSON
HYBRIDS OF WAR: A MORALITY POEM: 3. THAILALND by KAREN SWENSON
THREE SILENCES IN THAILAND by KAREN SWENSON