Alan Chong Lau


diego #1 by alberto giacometti
(nasher sculpture garden, dallas)

i’m a bundle
of nerves
neurons, synapses
snap, crackle & pop
it’s my face
that keeps it
all intact



diego #2 by alberto giacometti
(nasher sculpture garden, dallas)

i only remember
alberto
shivering
in his studio
lighting up
cigarette after cigarette
begging me
to keep still



banana on this sidewalk

after rats
gnaw out
the soft white flesh
it rains

what’s left
resembles
a yellow dugout canoe
filled with water
filled with mud



david bourdon and gregory battock, 1970 by alice neel
(blanton museum of art, austin)

sometimes this
room’s not big
enough
for two

and just wants
to eat us up

other times
our love
is a ladder
we climb
to go out
the window

elevating us
above the gum-filled sidewalk
and into the clouds
that sit
on our heads
like fluffy crowns



self-portrait as a photographer

wrapped in this shroud
my fingers dance
around a fire
light is just an eraser
rubbing out my face




Alan Chong Lau is a Seattle-based poet and artist. He is represented by ArtXchange gallery. He serves as the arts editor for the International Examiner, an Asian American community newspaper.
 
 
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