Murdering Li Bai

Murdering Li Bai

Mangling your “Quiet Night Thoughts” once again,

this time in a corner of this mostly-closed mall

on Family Day, among a scattering of lattes and smartphones,

keeping my voice low I send your measured tones skidding

and flopping every which way, clumsy as geese on glare ice,

as T’ao Ch’ien, Meng Hao-Jan, Lu Yu, Yang Wan-Li and all my 

                                                            other heroes

tremble in eternity awaiting their turn (don’t even ask

why I have to do it out loud—I just do, that’s all—                    

have to hear what came out of your mouth thirteen centuries

ago on some mountain come out of mine, however half-assedly)—

Poor old moon-besotted master,

how it helps to hear you laugh whole-heartedly at these adoring 

                                                            squawks!