I might be mistaken
but you were the very first

(at least as I remember),

the one who would awaken

the child, underrehearsed,

as a repeat customer.


The twelve turns swung around 

me for the third time;

the damage by my own accord.

With my eyes kept to the ground,

these dirty hands of mine 

would be a blemish on her otherwise 

pristine record.


Since then, the decline 

in the quality of dates was evident

on either side of the tracks.
A shiny attractor at one time

soon became as inelegant
as another zombie lurking 

in the depths of my phone contacts.


That ghoul revived;
dead friends with benefits
and decorated with unseasonal flowers;
the shiny patch on her nose survived

and the black dress she still tightly fits

gleamed in the light 

of the setting sun’s golden hours.


All neat lines, sharp angles, 

and overlapping layers;
sliding like the glass elevators
inside the chromium tangles;
her face halted her betrayers;

tinged red like the clouds

and their orchestrators.

A moment of sudden uncertainty,
pursuing fame and profit,
wasn’t completely meaningless either;
the lowest rung is always so dirty.

And unable to stop it,

in the arranged dating marketplace,
at the hands of my deceiver.

Existing together somewhere 

beyond the family, outside the home,
the lawn turned from green to black, 

then orange under the light’s care,
cycling back through time’s blown;

the abrasions of the rainy season 

had marked the surface of the stack;


Brand new, or a decaying shell 

on the point of collapse,
the red pylons of the distant Yangpu Bridge
mapped out all the city’s positions well;

like two sticks of incense, perhaps,

glowing at each tip
and releasing all their smoky courage.


Illuminating everything that could see them 

and everything that could not,
she could have been an actor, 

or a time traveller (from way back) then;
sparks were cast down, sparkling hot

glittering waves that tumbled forth

and entrapped her.



Amber street lights, black roads, mauve tights,
like a game restarting in something of a trance;
like two fish trapped in a weir;
stuck in the reddish neon nights,
she disappeared down one hole, by chance,

and from another she’d reappear.


The reflections gleamed ,

neither the air nor the water 

had changed with the years;
the two incense sticks seemed 

crimson, solemn, and brought her

indifferent to the blazing headlights
of a thousand volunteers.

The surface of the river was calm, 

and the sky was broad;
it felt like I had left my room behind 

and was standing with her arm-in-arm,

a simple reward,
together in the midnight street
I might be mistaken
and I may be so inclined.

This poem is an exercise of my own invention. I took a short story (Goodbye, Bridge of the East by Wang Zhanhei) that I wanted to read but hadn’t yet, and ran it through DeepSeek to extract whatever lines it found of a poetic nature, of which there were thirty-three. Without reading the story, I reworked all the lines, in order, into the poem you see here now.

I’m not sure how successful it is and I’m off to read the story now, wondering how similar it might be to what I came up with.

I’ll try this again but perhaps be a bit more selective with the extracted phrases, as this poem is way longer than anything I would normally write.

The following is a letter from December 31st, 2024, delivered today from the past

Dear FutureMe,

It’s December 31st 2024. Just another day as far as I feel. I’ve not invested much into important dates. So long as I remember Hayden’s birthday, Amy’s birthday and our wedding anniversary, that’s pretty much all I need for dates.

Of course, circumstances also dictate I must go to Thai immigration every 90 days and renew my visa every year. Boring but important duties.

Tomorrow I have to collect a stool sample and then on Jan 2nd, I go and do a health check at the hospital. In general, I’ve been feeling the best and healthiest that I have since I was a teenager (physically, at least). My problems all seem to be ‘old man’ related and I am a little bit concerned about my prostate, hence the need for a health check.

I’ve managed to keep posting a poem every day on my blog and feel that my writing has improved a little. I’ve also managed to keep an online diary every day that will get posted to the blog at some point. This is mostly interesting to me, to look back and reflect on how I’ve changed.

At this stage, I anticipate continuing with this writing as it keeps me grounded and also tests my abilities.

I’m still enjoying school and teaching – maybe too much! I guess I’m comfortable with everything and sometimes that reminds me that I may be taking things for granted.

It is also a little exhausting and doesn’t leave me with much energy and enthusiasm for other things. I am quite easily satisfied with my life but also have to remember that Amy is here and we could be doing things together. These days I let her take the lead as she is more aware of things happening around that we could go to together. I don’t really know about new restaurants or interesting events to check out. I’m just not looking around in those circles. I know that I’m a little wrapped up in myself and, as mentioned above, don’t want to take things for granted.

Tonight we will go to Mum and Dad’s for a NYE dinner, though I hope that we don’t end up staying until midnight. Amy’s brother has moved back from Bangkok now and Amy and I are both preparing our minds for the family dramas that this might bring.

I think that I will write another letter here after I get my health check results. Let’s see where life takes me.