halong bay, viet nam

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

author : DJ Huppatz


enveloped in mist, channels pass through stunted mountaintops weathered by history, shaped by mythology, shrinking into glassy sea. silver surface becomes sky, shrouds limestone coming into light. a dark birdshape glides across silence. stone fades with motor hum into outlines hinting misty shapes of which poets write.

vegetation clings to balding tops, ocean dissolves stone from below, cutting caves. you are crouched on a sampan bow feeding trawling nets into the bay. all around limestone faces falling into jade glass quietude, your crinklecut sails navigating passages through humbling valleys between clings & caves. & i, emphemeral i, self-cast drifting mistbound over rounded tops over scattered fragments, remains of a cracked fragility, water passages & misty clouds hinting of ancient paper, pigment eating it away. its chinese characters run, ink washes the sky gray & flailing its tail behind, the dragon slumps into the bay.


(Overland, No.159, Winter 2000)

Filed under : EDITION  -

ARCHIVES of July , 2005