ENG

sometimes this world
was written just for me.

on my first japanese day
i see a small plastic garbage can
plastered with the english message
“Would you like to review
what your life should be…?
followed by an ellipsis
and a question mark?

i review it constantly
for the next four years

a sweat shirt in the style of
so many colleges, slogans slammed
onto it in all caps:
“FUN WAY
BRO
EVOLUTION OF MIND
CAPABILITY TO EVOLVE”
and finally, a call to action:
“UTTER A VOW, THE FUN BEGINS.”

it makes more sense than the one
i saw a girl wearing the other day
that said only
“CRISPY AS FUCK.”

& coffee called blendy, bearing a
favorable quote
I imagine the top executives
milling the PR strategy for weeks,
the line they come up with is printed
on the bottle, marketing brilliance
in quotes of its own,
as though it is being said aloud,
from a friend to a friend,
maybe a whisper, in the morning:
“Try Blendy, you will love it.”

i use
toilet paper that says, on the package
“I am sending a little present
for your toilet room. I hope the
friendship between us will last as long
as we live, whatever may happen.”
i wipe my ass with it
i am sorry to tell you this, but
whatever may happen
has happened, old friend

lamb is called genghis khan
which conflicts with my memories
of history class

a band is named snail ramp
which woulda made biology more interesting

a store is called don quixote
which changes literature
there is a bigger version called
mega don quixote,
which ruins the entire story for me
retroactively

english, taken out back
behind the shed.

animal food called CAT SMACK
cream named creap
candy named collon
crackers called CRATZ
the insides of an animal called
assorted raw guts
and so on
a parking lot named Poo
a bus called salad express

wooden toys called
natural woody series
hand wipes named wet fukin
and the thing that happens after it,
hard-off

but even after
reviewing what my life should
be?
i have come to the conclusion
that
sometimes nonsense is
better than understanding,
things we could never create
and can’t comprehend
beauty in places I would never expect

like the catchcopy on the sign
in front of a place called ENG
which i convince myself represents
all of human life and the world, and
not just a little bar:

“eng is not so large. By choice it
is small. It is considerably small.
But there is a delicious dish here.
There is liquor healing fatigue.
There is a friend understanding a
feeling. And smiles overflow above all.”