Mary Ruefle

Four Anecdotes From the Life of Dang Yo-une

 I

He stood outside the gates of Lhasa for four days

singing I fall upon the thorns of life,

I bleed, but the berries are delicious

if you remember to wash them.

                           II

The surface of his coca-cola sparkled so—

atoms of joy leapt from it like salmon in mid-stream!

He drank, then wiped the fish off his lips.

                           III

Wearing the pussy white suit of an astronaut

he tried to mount his horse

who pushed him baroquely

till he fell rococo and lanced.

                           IV

Innumerable horses race insanely

into the peak of battle

unaware Admiral van Euckhuysen is a tulip.

Dang, too, pretended he was a cat

and buried a bone.