Jason Koo

American Dream

  after Shakespeare 129

Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme.
What’s the point of being ridiculous?
Over and over and over again, it seems.

Enough’s enough, enough to make you scream.
Well, you don’t. You’re quiet. Meticulous.
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme.

You browse through dirty thumbnails on a screen
Then click Clear History, recoil in disgust.
Over and over and over again, it seems.

This gives new meaning to the phrase come clean.
A silly sully-cycle—you’re into this?
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme?

Not a human being but an in-between,
There, not there, there and not there, more or less
Over and over and over again, it seems.

Oh Mister Umpteen, Mixmaster Misqueme,
What’s the point of being ridiculous?
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme.
Over and over and over again you dream.

Jason Koo is the author of Man on Extremely Small Island (C&R Press, 2009), winner of the De Novo Poetry Prize and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop Members’ Choice Award for the best Asian American book of 2009. His recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Octopus, The Missouri Review and The Yale Review.