Origins: Sometimes, a hot guy randomly enters your train on the Washington Metro and sits directly across from you. What more is necessary?
The poets the narrator adores are all foundational to the Chinese and Japanese canon. The poem she “borrows” from Tu Fu is called “Sent to Li Po as a Gift”:
…You drink a great deal,
You sing wild songs,
Your days pass in emptiness,
Your nature is a spreading fire,
It is swift and strenuous.
But what does all this bravery amount to?
(Aysough-Lowell translation)
Number of Drafts: 12.
Music: Violent Femmes, “Add It Up”
“Kiss Off”
“Sweet Misery Blues”
Sisters of Mercy, “Body and Soul”
Japan, “Visions of China”
Stone Roses, “I Wanna Be Adored”
Skinny Puppy, “Last Call”
R. Renee Branca 