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Father’s Brother, Better than You
In a closely monitored volcano, you find ponds.
Leagues and leagues, of ponds like a story.
Goro Takano’s hand on a third language. Camera.
Gamelan. The eel I choose for lunch, it hails from
Miyazaki, same place the little hair iron
manufacturer you use keeps its headquarters. The gene pool
of songs marinates a personality, to remind a listener of a hundred
lost loves. Are we content with viscous syrups, or cold enough.
A winter morning. More sway than a butcher bird: plastic chopping board.
The history game is a way to insert oneself as Ann Curthoys.
Our problem is not a lack of stories, but a lack of fans.
I know that I watch more Twitter than I read.
I was the Prince of Los Angeles, that’s why. It’s critical.
I am a Wollongong dolphin, kissing another.
This year’s annual Chinese character was “gold”, meaning nothing.
You learn to bury your father’s brother, better than you.
McDonald’s in an Emergency
That’s probably the only thing my people have in common with me:
In an emergency, we belong in the en attendant. They march
at the least stirring. Now that the tinnitus represents a reboot, supply
chains parts of a mainframe future, I’m never off egos.
Suppose I never was. Eileen – they were there first – in my heart.
A Deathstar hive of McDonald’ses all clustered together like grapes.
The self and their satellized poetry – steal a Taiwan-Japan rapprochement,
irony the communist the alternative, as all rocks and hard places are, no?
The person-on-person glee that they semble in our storytelling, this
fashion shoot of a stage seals, fall – and be an optimistic avatar of the
demon teaching healthy fear – know turpitude. What’s he doing
between the sugar cane and the toad; we’re suspicious of our hero. The gulf
between Oceania and Sakhalin alone will keep a lithe brain grey.
Corey Wakeling is a writer, scholar, and translator living in Tokyo. He is the author of four collections, his most recent collection Uncle of Cats, published with Cordite in 2025. Born in the UK and raised in Australia, Corey was granted a PhD in English and Theatre Studies at the University of Melbourne in 2013, and has lived in Japan since 2015. He works as an associate professor of English literature at Aoyama Gakuin University.
Copyright © 2025 by Corey Wakeling, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of Copyright law. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author.
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