HOUSE OF OOLONG: Most writers i know are fond of coffee shops and tea houses. I sometimes fantasize about owning one. I would call it The House of Oolong. I have been told that Oolong in Chinese means "Dark or Black Dragon".

HOUSE OF OOLONG

In the land of honey and
four kinds of milk
a man on the sidewalk
stares through the window
of the House of Oolong

Between sips of tea
i stare back at lips
discernibly mobile
a face roughly shaven
eyebrows in a knot

Rehearsing a panhandle line?
composing a prayer?
reciting a silioquoy?

On this side of the Oolong window
half and half puddles at the foot
of a black pot
honey waits to be squeezed
from plastic bears

Out there
the noiseless commotion
of a stranger's lips
creates words behind vague eyes
by the thump of a heart pumping
blood borne precursers of speech
through a capillary net deep
beneath shaggy hair and stocking
cap, flowing into consonants and
vowels to gather like the drip of
honey and milk at the tip of a tongue
as the man's mental molecules
become words in ways
i can't imagine

Whatever he might have to say
perhaps brillant or absurd or
both, remains unheard, arrested
in flight against the outside
Oolong glass

On my table a fly struggles
to escape the grip
of a honey bear.

don brennan