poem “Using Bamboo and “Embracing” the West”, a poem about learning the culture of China, from being taller than everyone to how uncomfortably hard China mattresses are to how cheap it is to but beer on the street from a vendor to how the embrace capitalism - particularly with so man Starbucks and Kentucky Fried Chicken stoees, to seeing how the build all buildings high rises by using some of the U.S. steel Americans think takes too much work to melt down and reuse, or how all of the construction ladders are made out of bamboo instead of stell because of its natural strength and abundance, By Chicago Poet Janet Kuypers

[the Writing of Kuypers] [JanetKuypers.com] [Bio] [Poems] [Prose]

Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her v348 8/24 cc&d issue/book “Pandora’s Box” & the CyberWit.net Summer 2024 Janet Kuypers poetry book “The Universe is in Your Hands” poems “On a Mission for This Reprieve”, “Using Bamboo and “Embracing” the West”, & “Embracing History, Race, and Creole Soul” to start her “Poetic License 8/4/24 global open mic” she hosted through Zoom & a Facebook event page (from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Link ed in, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).. Also enjoy this as a Facebook live video stream (Samsung S9; Color Film; on Facebook, Twitter, Link ed in, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperstheuniverseisinyourhands #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperspoeticlicense

Using Bamboo and “Embracing”
the West
Janet Kuypers
2/6/24
Greeted by my male friend at Shanghai International Airport,
he asked if I had grown, I seemed taller ”
it wasn‣t because both of us usually towered over the locals
but because I was now confident & stood tall.
Before going to his apartment, where the pull-out couch bed
he had was so much softer than his mattress,
we picked up huge bottles of Tsingtao to drink at home from
a street vendor. Only 3/$1 ” what a bargain.1
Seeing buildings adorned with Kentucky Fried Chicken and
Starbucks shops with their emblems everywhere,
It seemed China embraced the U.S.‣ commercialism, as well
as our excess building & manufacturing metals
that Americans think costs too much to melt down & reuse...
so, China builds high-rises from our scraps.2
But walking out of a Starbucks after seeing some of the sights
and needing caffeine from an iced mocha
Frappuccino with extra black chocolate (the Chinese didn‣t
have white chocolate, only black, they explained)
we passed multiple construction structures at building fronts,
made not from metal, but bamboo. I hear
that bamboo is really strong, and hey, if they use U.S. steel,
why not use bamboo that grows wild & sways
to the wind on the coast of the East China Sea in Shanghai ”
the way their coastal buildings appear to sway.

1 from the poem “My Brain Was”
2 from the poem “Outsourcing the American Dream”

Copyright © Janet Kuypers.

my hand to an anim of jkchair