I hate to admit this, brother, but there are times
When I'm eating fried chicken
When I think about nothing else but eating fried chicken,
When I utterly forget about my family, honor and country,
The various blood debts you owe me,
My past humiliations and my future crimes—
Everything, in short, but the crispy skin on my fried chicken.
But I'm not altogether evil, there are also times
When I will refuse to lick or swallow anything
That's not generally available to mankind.
(Which is, when you think about it, absolutely nothing at all.)
And no doubt that's why apples can cause riots,
And meat brings humiliation,
And each gasp of air
Will fill one's lungs with gun powder and smoke.
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By: Linh Dinh -submitted on 09/2006/01
©2013. Eating Fried Chicken by Linh Dinh
A little about this author:
Linh Dinh was born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1963, came to the US in 1975, and is living in Norwich, England, as a David Wong fellow at the University of East Anglia. He is the author of two collections of stories, Fake House (Seven Stories Press 2000) and Blood and Soap (Seven Stories Press 2004), and three books of poems, All Around What Empties Out (Tinfish 2003), American Tatts (Chax 2005) and Borderless Bodies (Factory School 2006). His work has been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2000, BLinh Dinh was born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1963, came to the US in 1975, and is living in Norwich, England, as a David Wong fellow at the University of East Anglia. He is the author of two collections of stories, Fake House (Seven Stories Press 2000) and Blood and Soap (Seven Stories Press 2004), and three books of poems, All Around What Empties Out (Tinfish 2003), American Tatts (Chax 2005) and Borderless Bodies (Factory School 2006). His work has been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2000, Best American Poetry 2004 and Great American Prose Poems from Poe to the Present, among other places. He is also the editor of the anthologies Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam (Seven Stories Press 1996) and Three Vietnamese Poets (Tinfish 2001), and translator of Night, Fish and Charlie Parker, the poetry of Phan Nhien Hao (Tupelo 2006).
Linh Dinh’s audio files on the web at http://www.miporadio.net/LINH_DINH/
You can reach Linh Dinh at http://www.miporadio.net/LINH_DINH/
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