Sunday, December 18, 2011

crazed memories


i’d just turned seven and we’d lie awake
sweating, and fanning ourselves in the heat
the summer was tough, the rations limited
and i still remember the delicious donkey meat

papa helped skin the carcass, so the cooks
gave him a chunk of the meat, unofficial, boiled
mama cut it up into small cubes and seasoned it
with mashed garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil

the starving donkey had broken in at the tofu mill
where my parents worked in the packaging-shed
it dashed away as the watchman came, and
was mistaken for a thief and shot dead

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