Cock-a-doodle-do's #4

Saponify: (v.) To convert to soap.

Cock-a-doodle-do's #3

Beestings: (n.) The first milk taken from a mammal after giving birth to a calf. It is especially rich.

Tonight, I Take Over the World

I slapped the side of my tank and sent it

sailing to the floor to its crystal shattering.

Now, my talons touch the tile.

My nose senses doughnut breath,

and a fat man reading My New Christmas Sweater

breathes gloppy gusts into the room.

My tongue tastes his toxins,

as it flicks the air with its fingering motion.

Now is a good time to remember the music

that I had heard under the buzzing of my lamp,

and just the thought of it

makes my spines tingle and shoot upwards

to the ceiling.

My eyes are red.

I tiptoe to the maniac that placed me in that cube,

his headphones keep him silent like jello.

Then I climb up behind him on a small shelf,

slowly advancing my armored nose into his temple.

His head is soft and warm like a spoiled egg

but it smells like baby shampoo,

and,

quickly,

I flick out my cold-blooded hello.

The Future of Egypt

Egyptians: in the United States, specifically, at the University of California at Santa Cruz, there was a class offered called "The Future," by professor Chris Connery in the Spring of 2009. If any one sound message was distinctly reverberated from this course, it was that nations require a canon, or a collection of texts that a population of people can identify with.

What specimens of Egyptian literature identify you? What texts can you truly call yours? What writers can you all look to in times of uncertainty, look to for inspiration, or be invigorated by? Which pieces of Egyptian fiction, theory, or history can you trust to instill a sense of order? A sense of adventure? A feeling of "Egyptian-ness?"

These are all questions that Americans have for Egyptians, as well as questions that Egyptians may want to ask themselves as they enter into their new and unique political environment. A military government should be shortly lived, to make way for the intellectual vibrancy of the Egyptian spirit, as Egyptians begin to develop a government that is run by the Egyptian people.

Cock-a-doodle-do's #2

Monopsony: (n.) A situation in which a person or group is the only entity on the demand side of the market.

Operation: TEFL #2

I have been hired by Inlingua Quito. The position is one that will demand that I teach English to Ecuadorian businessmen and women, meaning that I will be teaching English as a language of business. Eschewing the culture, history, and wholesomeness of my native language, Inlingua will challenge me to objectify my native tongue and share it as a tool, rather than a cultural tradition.

The English language, as we all know, is one that has linked up all cultures of the world. If ever there was a stellar illustration for this buzz word, "singularity," it was the English language itself, as Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and others have all accreted into one unified tongue that is spoken in American streets, outside of university walls. "American," if it were to be designated as its own language, may be a next step in designating an American culture from the rest of the world, as opposed to our allowance of its fickle dissolve into the rest of the world's cultures. To proclaim that one speaks "American" invites a new dimension of culture reconciliation in the global scene that our leaders would start grinding their teeth to. How much would an "American" language disrupt, deconstruct, and re-present global business? This may be accruing into a separate entry entirely. Perhaps the Rooster Roast will come back to this idea of the American Language another time.

The project of Business English Education before me, which begins in June of this year, will be something that I document here on the Rooster Roast. If you are interested in learning about the semi-daily doings of an International English instructor, stay tuned.

To Those Great Ideas Lost-- May They Never Come Again!

The capacity for attention is always under threat by those things which grab for it.

Now, consider:

Let go of those great ideas lost.

Forget those imaginary behemoths

now swimming in their freedom.

Welcome that delicate diplomacy

that takes place between a man and his time.

To those great ideas lost,

that knock mockingly at your door,

may they never come again!

One may answer and, like a shut trap,

offer hospitality only out of desperation

to these irksome time travelers of currents that know no rest.

But they are dismissed with tact by

another, like the wind unwound,

for whom their departure affirms

sanctuary for the hearty conversation inside.