Two poems
Squatting strangely & 「頹廢模式」“decadent mode”
by L. Acadia
Squatting strangely
(found poem, translated from Taiwan’s United Daily News newspaper)
July thirteenth evening on Zengzi Road
an office worker removed
sodden shoes outside the company door.
A man in a khaki hat
squatted strangely (claim passersby).
He quickly slipped two live fish between sole
and insole of each freshly
re-desecrated office worker’s shoe.
Netizens castigate and
catechize the khaki-capped odd squatter.
After photos emerge, a man now in
middle management reports
similar mischief with seven guppies:
all from this fishy fellow?
Police refuse to take the case.
「頹廢模式」“decadent mode”
(found poem, translated from Taiwan’s 自由時報 newspaper)
Know how to unwind?
Cute spotted hyena Ena (エナ)
got it down
making netizens laugh, ventriloquize
“I must have an uncle inside my body.”
After work at Japan’s Noichi zoo
She plops down like
a world-weary human being
this is Ena’s daily routine like
“useless humans on the road in Kabukicho
after drinking alcohol all night”
After her meal
belly up, leaning spine to wall,
she will strike a pose,
turn on “decadent mode.”
L. Acadia is a lit professor at National Taiwan University, Taiwan Literature Base 2024–2025 Writer-in-Residence, and Pushcart-nominated member of the Taipei Poetry Collective with poetry in JMWW, New Orleans Review, Strange Horizons, Stone of Madness Press, and elsewhere. She lives with her wife and hound in the 'literature mountain' district of Taipei. Connect on Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky: @acadialogue