Wednesday, May 18, 2005

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy

Ooo.. first saw this book over at Kinokuniya.. a very morbid book.. seems like pple are very much into morbid stuff these days.. the characters and pictures are always very simple, look very much like children's books, but when u go into details and start reading the book, u'll realise that it's not at all suitable for children..

think the trend these days are picture books with very morbid themes, basically not much words, jus alot of pictures and alot of shocking words and ideas.. like this oyster boy, emily the strange, sandman and a few more... some of them called themselves poems.. maybe they are.. but i still prefer tang shi.. where poems have proper structure and pple prove themselves by pushing themselves within the structure.. new poems doesn make sense to me.. they dun have a structure and they dun rhyme.. it's jus a bunch of words thrown together and they call it poem.. i call it bad writing skills.. true that i'm not a very good writer, that my grammer sucks, but at least i know how to read and to make sense of stuff.. and new poems doesn make sense to me. period.

but here's the poems in oyster boy, found here



Stick Boy and Match Girl in Love

Stick Boy liked Match Girl,
He liked her a lot.
He liked her cute figure,
he thought she was hot.
But could a flame ever burn
for a match and a stick?
It did quite literally;
he burned up quick.

------------------------------------------------------------

Voodoo Girl

Her skin is white cloth,
and she's all sewn apart
and she has many colored pins
sticking out of her heart.

She has many different zombies
who are deeply in her trance.
She even has a zombie
who was originally from France.

But she knows she has a curse on her,
a curse she cannot win.
For if someone gets
too close to her,
the pins stick farther in.

-------------------------------------------------------

Robot Boy

Mr. an Mrs. Smith had a wonderful life.
They were a normal, happy husband and wife.
One day they got news that made Mr. Smith glad.
Mrs. Smith would would be a mom
which would make him the dad!

But something was wrong with their bundle of joy.
It wasn't human at all,
it was a robot boy!

He wasn't warm and cuddly
and he didn't have skin.
Instead there was a cold, thin layer of tin.

There were wires and tubes sticking out of his head.
He just lay there and stared,not living or dead.
The only time he seemed alive at all
was with a long extension cord
plugged into the wall.

Mr. Smith yelled at the doctor,
"What have you done to my boy?
He's not flesh and blood,
he's aluminum alloy!"

The doctor said gently,
"What I'm going to say
will sound pretty wild.
But you're not the father
of this strange looking child.
You see, there still is some question
about the child's gender,
but we think that its father
is a microwave blender."

The Smith's lives were now filled
with misery and strife.
Mrs. Smith hated her husband,
and he hated his wife.
He never forgave her unholy alliance:
a sexual encounter
with a kitchen appliance.

And Robot Boy
grew to be a young man.
Though he was often mistaken
for a garbage can.

----------------------------------------------------

Staring Girl

I once knew a girl
who would just stand there and stare.
At anyone or anything,
she seemed not to care.

She'd stare at the ground,

She'd stare at the sky.

She'd stare at you for hours,

and you'd never know why.

But after winning the local staring contest,
she finally gave her eyes
a well-deserved rest.
----------------------------------------------------
The Boy with Nails in His Eyes

The Boy with Nails in his Eyes
put up his aluminium tree.
It looked pretty strange
because he couldn't really see.
-------------------------------------------------------

The Girl with Many Eyes

One day in the park
I had quite a surprise.
I met a girl
who had many eyes.

She was really quite pretty
(and also quite shocking!)
and I noticed she had a mouth,
so we ended up talking.

We talked about flowers,
and her poetry classes,
and the problems she'd have
if she ever wore glasses.

It's great to now a girl
who has so many eyes,
but you really get wet
when she breaks down and cries.
--------------------------------------------------
Stain Boy

Of all the super heroes,
the strangest one by far,
doesn't have a special power,
or drive a fancy car.
next to Superman and batman,
I guess he must seem tame.

But to me he is quite special,
and Stain Boy is his name.
He can't fly around tall buildings,
or outrun a speeding train,
the only talent he seems to have
is to leave a nasty stain.

Sometimes I know it bothers him,
that he can't run or swim or fly,
and because of this one ability,
his dry cleaning bill is sky-high.
-------------------------------------------------

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy

He proposed in the dunes,
they were wed by the sea,
Their nine-day-long honeymoon
was on the isle of Capri.

For their supper they had one specatular dish-
a simmering stew of mollusks and fish.
And while he savored the broth,
her bride's heart made a wish.

That wish came true-
she gave birth to a baby.
But was this little one human
Well, maybe.
Ten fingers, ten toes,
he had plumbing and sight.
He could hear, he could feel,
but normal?
Not quite.

This unnatural birth, this canker, this blight,
was the start and the end and the sum of their plight.
She railed at the doctor:
"He cannot be mine.
He smells of the ocean, of seaweed and brine."
"You should count yourself lucky, for only last week,
I treated a girl with three ears and a beak.
That your son is half oyster
you cannot blame me....
have you ever considered, by chance,
a small home by the sea?"

Not knowing what to name him,
they just called him Sam,
or sometimes,"that thing that looks like a clam"

Everyone wondered, but no one could tell,
When would young Oyster Boy come out of his shell?
When the Thompson quadruplets espied him one day,
they called him a bivalve and ran quickly away.

One spring afternoon,
Sam was left in the rain.
At the southwestern corner of Seaview and Main,
he watched the rain water as it swirled
down the drain.

His mom on the freeway
in the breakdown lane
was pouding the dashboard-
she couldn't contain
the ever-rising grief,
frustration,
and pain.

"Really, sweetheart," she said
"I don't mean to make fun,
but something smells fishy
and I think it's our son.
I don't like to say this, but it must be said,
you're blaming our son for your problems in bed."

He tried salves, he tried ointments
that turned everything red.
He tried potions and lotions
and tincture of lead.
He ached and he itched and he twitched and he bled.

The doctor diagnosed,
"I can't quite be sure,
but the cause of the problem may also be the cure.
They say oysters improve your sexual powers.
Perhaps eating your son
would help you do it for hours!"

He came on tiptoe,
he came on the sly,
sweat on his forehead,
and on his lips-a lie.

"Son, are you happy? I don't mean to pry,
but do you dream of Heaven?
Have you ever wanted to die?
Sam blinked his eye twice.
but made no reply.

Dad fingered his knife and loosened his tie.
As he picked up his son,
Sam dripped on his coat.
With the shell to his lips,
Sam slipped down his throat.

They burried him quickly in the sand by the sea-
sighed a prayer, wept a tear-
and they were back home by three.

A cross of greay driftwood marked Oyster Boy's grave.
Words writ in the sand
promised Jesus would save.
But his memory was lost with one high-tide wave.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Stain Boy's Special Christmas

For Christmas, Stain Boy got a new uniform.
It was clean and well pressed,
comfy and warm.

But in few short minutes,
(no longer than ten)
those wet, greasy stains
started forming again.

--------------------------------------------------

The Girl Who turned into a Bed

It happened that day
she picked up a strange pussy willow.
Her head swelled up white
and a soft as a pillow.

Her skin, which had turned
all flaky and rotten,
was now replaced
with 100% cotton.

Through her organs and torso
she sprouted like wings,
a beautiful setof matress and springs.

It was so terribly strange
that I started to weep.
But at least after that
I had a nice place to sleep.

-----------------------------------------------------
to be continued..

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