birdscape

As the engine got started, the bus slowly moved away from the depot and hit the road, my thoughts started to roll like the spinning wheels. I wanted to go to Taipei to meet my younger sister and brother. A bag stood beside my seat, in which there was a large pop-up book I bought on line to be a gift for my niece. She is just three years old. When she opens the book, there will be various birds singing and chirping from every page which pops up the landscape where specific birds inhabit, like desert, marshland, rain forest, and so on. I am not sure if she will like it or if it is suitable for her age. It has been a year since the last time I saw her. The book could be torn down in a few days by her curious fingers. Even so, I hope, she can finish it with an exhalation of awe, because it is as large as an illustrated Oxford Dictionary. I remember when I was a little boy, I got a pencil-sharpening machine, stylish and practical like any Japanese goods, from my aunt. I thought I could bring it to school to show off the next morning. But my father smashed it against the wall the very night, on his outburst of anger with my mother. I was woken up by the noise to find the debris of the gift and the mismatched marriage. Nothingness is happiness.

Cockroach

“C-o-c-k-r-o-a-c-h,” I spelled it out to Jelly at lunch. Of course, we did not have it for lunch. The restaurant was clean and quiet, to my surprise, with only a few people sitting sparsely around. We occupied the table at the farthest corner. Crystal was talking about her research on cockroaches, while the rest of us listened with mouths slightly agape, except for Mimi, our new CEO, screwing up her pretty face and making noises of disagreement. And then Mimi gave a vivid account of what once happened at her home in Taipei, dozens of cockroaches fled for life from a hole of a pipe in the kitchen because of pesticide spraying down in basement, very much like a scene of horror movie. Although I didn’t like them, either, Crystal made her research informative and sort of entertaining. John asked how to catch them effectively. A bottle with a little sugar and wine in it and petroleum jelly around its mouth can do the trick. As if thinking of speaking English, the official purpose of our meeting, Jelly asked how to spell cockroach, one of the very few words we spoke in English.

Spring Scream

The nine-day holidays of Lunar New Year, as time always flies, have come to an end. It is supposed to be a little depressing to have to come back to work. But, no, with more and more of bad news of financial crisis making the headlines, laid-off workers forced to tighten their belts, you should be glad that at least when you wake up tomorrow morning, wallowing in bed for a few minutes until all the senses restore the order of things, and jump to start the daily routines towards, yes, work.

It is wrong to start a new year in such a pessimistic way. The sun is shining in the blue sky and promises more of the same. Spring is here. Bad news may drop like shit from the sky. Everybody has their share. But that can’t stop me from uttering my first spring scream.

Ahhhhh...
Come all you gals
Put on your best clothes
Follow the footsteps of spring
Flowers will be your guide
And I am your man
Ahhhh...