Sublime

In this jackfruit republic that served as a franchise of the United States, Americans expected me to be like those millions who spoke no English, pidgin English, or accented English. I resented their expectation. That was why I was always eager to demonstrate, in both spoken and written word, my mastery of their language. My vocabulary was broader,

Beneath these giants, way down in the understory, her own body seems freakishly small, like one of those acorn-people she made in childhood.

Then, Max wrote, S. S. Van Dine called “to give notice” that he would bring in his newest manuscript—

He’s Sih Hsuin Ma now—his old self turned inside out, like a jaunty, reversible jacket.

Shifts in the narrative would occur—the past never a fixed and dormant landscape but one that is re-seen.

What is a country but a life sentence?

Together, they form one great symbiotic association, like the ones they study.

Sappho,