
© Wen-Juenn Lee
Ethnic beef
If you don’t mind me saying you eat like a savage
the Australian lady said at the Wellington dinner party.
Are you by any chance a person who is ethnic
said the marketing woman for tinned corn-beef.
Does she know what an ECG is said the ginger-haired doctor
when speaking about my mother at the outpatients’ clinic.
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How the ginger doctor treats an Island woman at the clinic
could be construed as culturally savage.
But at medical school they try to teach them a doctor
must have great people skills like the host of a party
if they don’t want unhappy clients who have a beef
based on treatment that framed them as ethnic
*
Another day another night market, just what you want from ethnic
People who are often fearful when they present at a clinic.
They sure know how to use spices with beef
because cooking is where they are not seen as savage
and are more than welcome at the party
the same way at a car crash we welcome a doctor
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Did you say you are a doctor?
Gosh you have done well for a person who is ethnic.
Your English is good so you will be able to talk at the party
which is in some ways a bit like a society’s clinic
A tad at times savage
And not really the place to have a beef.
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Have you tried the beef?
It’s very good and just what the doctor
ordered when your hunger is savage
It’s been made with skill by an ethnic
person who is a doctor and works in a clinic
and recently joined a political party.
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Isn’t this the most divine room for a party?
Even the designers won’t have a beef
it’s fun and chic not a medical clinic.
Our mix of guests includes a doctor
who, as we like to mix it up is ethnic
And not the least bit savage.
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There are times when savage thoughts emerge at a party
And ethnic people have a legitimate beef
especially when seeing a doctor at a clinic
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Garden poem 2.
My garden is a sex on site venue
butterflies hunting
a hook up.
The flowers a nectar bar to keep their juices flowing.
Heat-seeking sex machines
after the many always not the one ever.
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You think they flutter at peace with the world.
Summer!
Flowers!
Pretty!
Fragile creatures!
*
Gorgeous orange velvet wings shimmer in the sun.
Luscious red on black, silky whitey green.
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Colour to pull
they want to do it and do it and do it
on the wing
in the air
on a flower.
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No hook-up apps needed when the chrysalis pops.
They made it and now they want to make it.
Biology shouts and makes a move.
*
Male butterflies hunt
hot colours, sassy wings, great bodies.
Female butterflies like a sex smell, big wings
and courtly conversation.
Female butterflies be fussy:
No tickee, no washy.
*
My garden is a sex on site venue for butterflies
The flowers a nectar bar to keep their juices flowing.
*
Palm compass
Dawn
cool and wet.
No movement in sea washed silver and pink.
Flapping sails eager for air.
*
Tupaia rises;
Shoulders cloaked,
Deck creaks underfoot
Gazes.
Palm to the breeze.
Turns.
Watched by the crew.
Points that way.
Breeze fills canvas;
Endeavour slips into day as sun burns silver and pink to blue.