The President's Visit to China

i start watching the coverage

of the President's 

trip to China.

they seem to have a thing

for red flags,

and long red carpeted

runways.

it's pretty boring for the most

part,

there's a lot of walking

around, for some reason.

up and down

an enormous staircase.

hundreds of soldiers march

in a frightening display

of human cloning.

there's children jumping up and down,

like human flowers,

there's music playing

that sounds

like instrumental renderings

of songs in the Broadway play Oklahoma.

yawn, yawn, yawn.

no one falls down, no one

gets slapped, no one chokes

on their food or knocks over

a glass with a clumsy

pair of chopsticks.

no one is insulted and challenged

to a duel,

or sword fight,

and then suddenly i start to crave

some Chinese food.

it just hits me out of the blue.

maybe some crispy beef,

or General Tao Chicken.

a couple of egg rolls and

a pitcher of Mai Tais would hit

the spot.

but it's midnight.

so this bowl of cheerios

and a brown banana

will have to do.