Temple

A flowing video billboard, bleached skin,
euro fetish angels dominating the skyline
a pair of feathered wings bursts out of a woman’s spine

Another boring poem, she said.
Why do you have to be so analytical?
the cohabitation is strained
people change for the better, for the worst
Didn’t you have enough of those fucking neo-hippies in your 20’s?

a vengeful angel, x-ray turns you into a skeleton
power and vitality in a lifestyle beverage
surgical masks, features concealed

Back teeth in ruinsbuttressed up for support
rooted down deep into a numbered parts of a skull
"glass and plastic compound"
says the nurse, smiling 1000 times

red dust caked Cambodian petrol grog
in old whisky bottles
amputated despots gone AWOL in the bush
spirits to possess and kill the body
be careful what you wish for

taxi ride rice paddies
plastic flapping developments
radio information delivery distortion bobblehead buddha. 
Die, die, die, says the radio.

Cheap flights, express baggage
excess paranoia, drink service hustle
military jets boom overhead, raking the tarmac
tiny sliver darts moving
faster than the speed of sound

concrete hangover in the developing world
sagging under the weight of progress
melting grey wedding cakes, groaning AC units
a vertical attack to maximise space

same mistakes on repeat
escape and self-capture
is this the goal? To feverishly attempt to
break your own cycle?
to defile the patterns? Moving blindly along the internal track,
gathering speed and slowing down

swaying rooftop bar, umbrella drinks
bands playing exact copies but
even with their steely knives
they just can’t kill the beast

chasing lithium battery power
leeching off the grid
vicarious experience of pre-sequenced tourist events
music to bump up the specialness of it all

Blackened handrails and rainbow puddles
email confirmation in HCM City
apartment number 411, above the Mexican restaurant and organic drink stall,
a tattoo of birds of paradise on her wrist

rotting Chinese merchant towns packed in tightly along the river, twisting inwards like a knife
through plush green cane fields
persistent tailers measure you up for a coffin
and mouldy hotels and dangerous rips
pulling tourists down below the South China Sea.

Package beach tourist traps
broken resorts down south
the sun rising in the coiled machinery of your guts
heft animals patrol the sand
tattoos of glory days loosened up with age and gravity

Regret is a lonely legacy Joe
the hotel looks on with aloof disinterest
and the guests wander through bare spaces
while the staff bow and scrap
regret and 'too late' will easily fill a hotel swimming pool with alligator tears

ghosts of foreign correspondents
leak out of grand colonial hotels
float down on the river
roaster tail crankshafts
slay the lily pads
a portrait of the venerable king
kinks and sways in the wind

Cargo pants ripped in the ass
rabid monkey attacks on creaking temple platforms
just to be above the canopy
a blender turns dirty ice and
mango in a snack
plastic chair

humble beggars, missing lives
the heavy drag of afternoons, the insect feedback
echoing in sheared off sunlight, through smoky trees
temples shifting and settling into dust
slowly dying, slower at least than you and I

as we selfie ourselves to death
carpet bombing tracks of jungle
silent observers of past atrocities
gravel roads and forest roads
tuk-tuks to connect the dots

lithium battery detox
you changed, you got old and jumpy as a cat
street vendors shakedown
fake weed, real weed
GI Zippo lighter
just take a look, cause looking is free

rented rooms, suitcase compression
folded maps of lost city streets
spellcheck language mauler and ambiguity of the spirit diazepam alleyways

the chain of human endeavour
stretching back to deconstruct
social structure in year zero

beefed up Russian resorts
surging beach swell and dead dick disco
Cyrillic script palm tree neon g-strings.
Charcol baked lobster in oil drums
Oligarch sleep off hangovers is kingly, airless rooms

super hives, closely packed lives
tiny plastic furniture, scrambled signals through old technology
plastic goods and unwashed fruit
the constant wash of distant moped engines

the herniated upper floors of a new building
glitch out, destabilising in the afternoon glare
only to reform, full incorporated
slotting together with shimmering accuracy

super hives and super cranes
expressways spanning the cracks and
the vertical scramble, glass and steel
ladders reaching up to the flaming clouds

Stone age transformations
postcard-pretty views hide the rot behind the crown
history bleeds silently in the jungle mud
numbered jigsaw pieces strewn around the forest

A monk burns, charred heart in a jar
matches and gasoline, ascending to the next level
on a silk pillow, ugly black smoke, combustible belief and defiance,
organised on the shrine, 1969