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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.
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Other Poems of Interest...
ADAM AND HIS FATHER by KAREN SWENSON
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