the Shangaï Check
     
  Shangaï-Hangzhou. Shen, people said the most beautiful girls of China were in Hangzhou
But no one's as pretty as you
  My chinese name Hao WÈn (How-When / O-wen)
Linda chose it
It means Great Knowledge
Some people are gonna laugh
  A fighters' bar Arvo told us to be careful
Chinese guys just wanted to toast with us
Thanks for the advice Arvo
  Hair in the eyes
Hard to explain
To a chinese barber
What you really want
Nevermind
I'll be chinese bearded
  Broken Arrow? Time rushes like an arrow
Will I hit the target?
    Free people walk more straightfull
  ?????
To cabdriver xxxxx. Hangzhou China
Thanks for not honking during our 23 yuan course
You looked younger than me but I,
I paid you
    I miss coffee
             //
Fire miss wood
  To Nana
You guided me in the dark
Unknown first night.
Your favorite muffins
Don't taste so good
For french people
I'll remember
Your japanese accent
When you were speaking english
In this hurry night
To find coffee substitute
    To the girl in the room 304 (Bernard's room),
The 16th of january in the afternoon.
You asked for my height
To be a model for you
Was that a way to pick me up?
    Don't really know what you're searching for
Thanks for buying us lunch anyway
  Leo, First french girl meet in here
Didn't have a lot to say to her
Didn't have a lot in common
And Seychelles' guys didn't wanted to leave
The reggae bar
    You gave me an email
Don't even know your name
I'll send you the photo like you wanted
    Kind of strange bar
When you can eat macaroni, pizza and french fries
With so few chinese people
But we had fun and they worked hard
    Do I just have to say that I'm a poet to convince you?
  Stupid System
Hangzhou TV station want to do a program about us.
(My two french girl partners and I)
Of course, we're gonna be the foreigners
So interested by chinese culture
They already planned everything
Broadcasted in the whole country
Even if I become a very famous artist
I won't never have such an audience
    They told us to be natural
They promised about some points.
(Not a stupid film about stupid tourists)
They said it won't be a fiction.
But it did.
We just played like actors all days long
"Smile! Look at this! Pretend to shoot with your camera!"
I tried to do some personal things
We tried to reverse the program, to pervert, subvert main idea of the show
Next time we'll ask to be paid
  People's Park - Shangaï Old woman did tai qi
The elderly are so beautiful in here
Saturday morning, while kids look at tv in Europe
So early, chinese people sing in the park
Play mahjong or chinese chess
Practice gymnastic, learn to dance
While my mind is still in my bed
Some miles away
  To Shen / Ramada Plaza / ShangaÔ In the van to Hangzhou
48km left
I remember your way of saying
Take it?
When we hadn't any ticket
The 14th of january 2002
  Betting the money of my studies Some nights,
I play a 6 cards' game from Seychelles
With Seychelles' guys
Betting money of my studies
I can't win every time
But I'm not that bad neither
    Today was a good day for social experience
I came in a Portraitist photograph store
They used to shot young married, in studio mostly
I dream often about the Giorgio Armani suit I'll never can afford to buy
Here, for some chinese money, I wore a married dress
I don't know why I felt like Marylin Monroe,
Me, the dress and the cotton breast
One in a lifetime is perhaps not enough for a girl
But it's a lot for a guy like me
    I'm sitting here in my room
Waiting for the water to become warm and wash myself
Writing down this notes
Thinking that no one will accept to publish this
The 29th of january 2002
    I didn't promise about any good resolutions for the new year
For my birthday and the chinese new year
I want to start finding my own way
    Feeling sick in this so-called "great" bar
Two days with chinese medication
Have to finish my contract before to see a doctor
I think chinese will prefer seeing me in a party
Than recovering my sickness.
    Sometimes, like this night
I feel so tired that I write down some notes
To not falling asleep beside the others guests
But I'm too tired to write something beautiful
    Russian girls asked me to teach them
How to say
I love you
Do you love me?
I miss you
In french
They don't wanna know anything more
They're just as superficial as I thought
    In a supermarket
Acting like a kid
I'm real estate interpreter
What a word
for such a job
    Ok,
She, she always wants to look at my notes
Me, I don't wanna share this things anyhow
I start to sleep awaked
In my chair
Trying to keep myself aware
And my job will be done
Then I'll be paid
Then I could sleep
With the eyes closed
    China doesn't get me laugh anymore
I will start to become aggressive
    Tonight, my computer tell me about a great news
I'm gonna be uncle
When my friends told me they became aunt
I always found them pathetic
So happy for nothing
Extraordinary
Now, it's my turn
And try to imagine dear reader
That's not so pathetic
It could drive you a man
So stupidly happy
    In this bar
All the waiters have Bon Jovi T-Shirt
If he wasn't so untalented
It would make me laugh
    They always drink a lot of beer
Quite the same even if the names change
All I can say :
Imported beer doesn't come from Belgium
And that's suck
When you're kind of
Beer lover
  Chinese new year BOOM- BOOM- BOOM
I-BOOM- BOOM
CAN- BOOM-NOT
BOOM- BOOM- BOOM
HEAR- BOOM-YOU
BOOM- BOOM- BOOM
BOOM
    I don't wanna spend
One more night alone
It's Chinese new year
There MUST be some
Drunk Chinese girl
Falling in love
For no reason
    There's karaoke on TV
In the bar
A girl sings to her nail
I can't understand
Korean character
I just supposed that
The lyrics
Must be
Deeply meaningful
For a girl
To sing
To her nail
  Didn't thought about Valentine's day In two days
It'll be the 14th of
February
I hate this day
It's very easy to say
When you don't have
Any reason
To celebrate it
12/02/2002
  Time machine I wish I could
Have a time machine
To do things back
Another first time
Forever
  Babies never cry It's now more than a month
That I'm here
But I still didn't hear
Any baby cries
Any child neither
I just have one explanation
It must be forbidden by
The government
  She swallows my brain Some days are passed
Since my last poems
I didn't think about writing
A lot
How incredible
A girl
Not reaching 1m60
Can do
To your mind
  For Sophavanh
First time I saw her
She danced like a teenager
First I felt nothing
Then
Each part of my body fell in love with her
It was just like we were
One million people
To love her
In only one body
  The fist love revolution I never see
My body starts a revolution
And I was the battlefield
  First night together The first night
She slept with my penis in his right hand
Just like if it was the most precious thing she possessed at this moment
Like it was her wallet
I felt so beautifull
    Sometimes, I'd better work than look at her ass
But what an ass
    Ok, I wrote some stupid love poems
So what?
Everybody must think they suck
Except both of us
Anyway if I'm a loser
Cause of it
I'll be an happy loser
    St-Omach is full
  Waiting in a bank I sit in a bank and look
The stock exchange rate
With Chinese people
Writing down this note
They must think
I'm a golden boy
    Sometimes I just want to be in her
Not making love
Just be inside her
To keep her own personal perfume
On me
For the rest of the day
  Paco Rabanne was right
I saw city
Burning into flames
But it wasn't
Paris or Mir Station neither
It's the Chinese celebration
Of the light-up festival
    Laying on the grass
Looking at my sandwich
Waiting to understand
The mystery
Of it
     
 

the Shangaï Check
Vincent Drouot
Shangai Check.com

à Richard Brautigan
avec toutes mes excuses
     
image propriété de JP Vienne