I recognize the boy climbing up the bank on the other side. Turning, he calls to me, over the rush of the river, points to where a waterfall waits, high, and deadly. He gestures not to worry, but the current is fierce here, and I’m no longer the swimmer I was in my childhood. We’re…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
Snow Monkey: The Present/The Past
Snow Monkey: The Present The night is deep and dark, and I am the only visitor at the outdoor onsen on the hotel’s roof top. Fortunately, there is no wind, and my body still retains the heat from my previous cleansing. Nevertheless, a tiny towel is the only thing to guard against the winter’s chill,…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
Cruelty in April
First only green at the edges and on the ground. Then the heat arriving (like an unclocked summer) greens rise and invoke daffodils, crocuses quickly bloom and quickly die from the bipolar swing of the planet’s mood back to frost. Cruelty in April makes flora think showing up will be safe, so they show up…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
Kīpahulu Silence
Fog settling on Hawaiian birds, sharp and trilling between ʻokina, repeating and echoing over searching groans of wild bulls, over boars tearing up matrixes of dense forest roots with spear-edged tusks, while swollen mango, breadfruit, avocado, and jackfruit trees smack their sappy, sticky, ripping and rotting fruit into the turning soil. A commotion, a language…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
The Forgotten
He shuffles off down the street, looking for another safe space, another place to lay down and rest his tired and broken body and his weeping soul. He puts his meager belongings into his ragged and dirty backpack. Slowly he folds up his mat. You don’t need to watch me, I’ll go. I’m going,…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
What I Learned in Manhattan (bottom to top)
My brain felt active in every cell of my body. After that first day, and with daily practice, my mind became as sharp as a needle’s point. It is the first step to accessing emotional memories and imagining deeply. Relaxation is the key to genuine expression. Be very definite and precise, not general. Strasberg encourages…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
Wrong Stop
“Assistance, please.” A couple of individuals pointed electronic devices in his direction, but the visitor remained locked in time and space. “I need to leave. The guide said that everyone would be well fed, comfortably housed, and pursuing interests which contribute to the greater community. I was promised deep conversations with sensitive, intellectual beings enjoying…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
Close
“Perhaps,” she says, “that young man had been in a great deal of trouble in the past, and Doyle was trying to determine a recommendation for sentencing.” “I couldn’t imagine,” I say, “why he would bother himself with gathering information about a case that seemed so minor.” He’d asked me to recount the…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
Pest Pairing
Your soul may not yet yearn for it, but it will remain preserved in your imagination. Not be be outdone, cockroach juice can be boiled and brewed–served with ice and taste like prawns. Haneru means jump. Here’s news for you: a pest release from Japan– Haneru beer made from cricket broth. Worried about how it…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
Soda With That?
Mom never learned to make tempura in her native Japan Like her maki rolls, she learned to make them from Japanese wives married to American men. Japanese chefs in Japan spent years apprenticing before touching the batter or fry oil. In comparison, Mom’s batter was more golden yellow not pale blond, shrimp, green beans, sweet…
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