Exchange Rate

our eyes met. it was at that moment s/he knew s/he'd sign up. I leaned
over to clinch the deal. s/he looked me up and down I was swollen in all
the right places and then some. Chinatour gained another satisfied
customer, hir fantasy money in the bank. let's call this piece Exchange
Rate. geodesics make geodesy. I couldn't forget my future s/he said to no
one in particular. Chinatour will take care of that I said to no one in
particular. :leased hir body hir sheave-skin distended in all the right
places, for what, for Chinatour, the mountain says it all, hir body in the
foreground. I can't see clearly I said, I'm distracted. that's my job,
s/he said, I'm Chinatour, if you look at me I make money for them, you
can't help it, I can't help it, they pay me, they can't help it either.
where do they go I asked. who. Chinatour. s/he replied not to China that's
for sure. I don't know. but they use the Sung backdrop, Fan-Kuin, some-
thing like that, I don't speak the language. you can't see anything s/he
added, the fog's in the way. it's you not the fog I said and let it go at
that. Chinatour gains a point, maybe five. it's more than I'll ever see.
and these photos, incredible. almost like the real thing. there are no
real things around here. they're as real as they get, you just don't see
them. at least I see, s/he replied. at least I see as well I said not
catching the drift into body and fog, sheave-skin and mountain. our eyes
met.:leased hir body for that ad for Chinatour who knew what would come of
the foreground effacing tao-mudra w/ hermit in the distance well s/he
needed monie as s/he said and flight was easy it's our world s/he said,
there's no tao. there's no tao, nothing, not even emptiness, everything
stricture s/he said, you can't have a thing without a frame & a frame
without a thing. but I can fly s/he said & that's the tao of Chinatour you
can always have an image of the thing if you can't have the thing itself.
even emptiness I asked. even emptiness, if there's no way just turn the
screen off, I won't know, time stops when I'm gone, when I'm back it's
like I never left. even if things changed I asked. I begin where I begin
s/he replied. look at me. I'm ready for it. what's that I asked. movement,
process, s/he said, I can't go farther, Chinatour is looking for me:China-
tour, the velvet fog of the world:Chinatour satisfies your customer:China-
tour, the velvet fog of the world:Chinatour, when your day is done ours
ust begins :Chinatour, when there's smoke there's mountain

from ESP-Disk night performance at the Bowery Poetry Club (for Barnacled and my re-release of an ESP recording: http://www.alansondheim.org/esp2.mp3