The attached writings are the result of the first week of the creative writing workshop.

Group Surrealist poems

The clouds are white.

The baby tree kangaroo went inside its mommy’s pouch.

Her shirt was feeling particularly itchy until she realized there was a fly trapped under it fluttering its wings against her belly.

I want to spend the summer speaking Spanish, drinking red wine, and eating everything that is delicious.

Hell is sitting in a jail cell with soggy cereal while all the guards eat a huge feast just beyond your reach and you can only drool on yourself.

The windows are wide open with the birds singing in their morning glory.

Daughter.

The sun shines so brightly, that the sidewalk sizzles in the summer.

I tripped on myself walking home in the rain.

I really want soup dumplings now and suggest a workshop to just talk about food and more food.

To be free is to be yourself someone says these words; what and who is myself is my question.

The rainbow turtle vomited out all the pineapple shortcake she ate that morning.

Sunaina Rao

6/4

My favorite restaurant:

The cafe wasn’t the best restaurant in the world, but it was nearby and it felt like home. Tucked

into a laundromat on an unremarkable corner – it was good enough to leave the (relatively)

quieter residential streets of home and walk the tree-less blocks of Northern Blvd. Even in this

heat.

The woman and her partner knew exactly what they were going to get. They’d made this

journey before. The multigrain breakfast sandwich and an iced turmeric latte for her. A cold brew and a bagel sandwich for him. They’d split the empanada, sitting on the patio outside the

laundromat, letting the energy of the busy street pass them by.

They got to the cafe and placed their order. “Iced turmeric latte, oat milk, no sugar” she chirped before tapping her card on the reader. Her partner grabbed their cold brew and went to find a table for them outside. She stayed in, waiting for the rest of their food.

She looked down the aisle that separated the cafe from the laundromat and noticed a pair of

eyes on her. A small child who, upon being noticed, ran around the corner. At that moment the

barista called out the turmeric latte. She eagerly grabbed it and took a sip.

Blech! Sugar! She turned back to the barista and asked if there was sugar in it. The barista

apologized and began to remake the drink. She resumed waiting and, remembering the child, looked back down at the laundromat. A girl in a multi-tiered flounce dress, the kind with a stretchy nylon top for maximum princess durability, was watching her. This time from behind her parents’ leg. She smiled and waved at the girl, but the girl didn’t budge. Just continued to bore her ever-widening eyes into the woman.

She tried again, this time making a silly face. Then another. The girl began to stir, looking

around in awe and then back at the woman. The woman tried again, with the silliest face of all,

this time curling her hands into claws and craning her body in a funny way. At that moment the

girl’s mother turned and looked at the woman, knitting her eyebrows together in confusion and

suspicion. The Barista turned around too, taking a pause before saying ‘turmeric latte, no

sugar?”

The girl giggled as her mother led her away from sight of the strange woman, clearly having a fit

in the cafe.

The woman, feeling a little deflated, was relieved when the food also came out. She grabbed

the food and the no-sugar latte and strode out to the patio where, she hoped, no one had

witnessed her unwitting humiliation.

Chenshen

Fragment

“Excuse me, this is not what I ordered,” I looked at my food as the waiter placed the dish on the table. “Ma’am, you ordered two sauteed lobsters,” the waiter calmly replied. “But they are not lobsters. There are crabs,” I invited the waiter to take a look. The waiter looked and frowned: “Ma’am, they are lobsters.” “lobsters? Lobsters do not have round shells and these hairy, long legs. Lobsters are red when cooked. These crabs are yellow!” I slightly raised my voice in disbelief. The waiter scratched his head and replied: “Ma’am. I have no idea what you are talking about.” The customers at other tables started to murmur: “What’s wrong with this lady?”

“Mommy, she thinks those are crabs!” A child laughed. “Shhh! Don’t be rude.” The mother hushed the child.

“But these are crabs,” I started to feel confused.  “Ma’am, do you need medical assistance?” The waiter asked. “No, I am fine. So these are lobsters?” I carefully asked. “Yes, one hundred percent Alaskan lobsters,” the waiter explained.  

Outside of the earth atmosphere, a spaceship was parked with an invisible shield on. “Captain, the lobster-crab mind switching beam is working! Now we can disguise ourselves as lobsters, and invade the earth! And everyone will think we are just crabs!”

Susan Lau

Alien

1989, I started thinking of to move to New York to join my Dad and Uncle. We all stayed in Park Row in Manhattan, a comfortable and decent apartment. There are five families on the floor. I barely know their names. I have been in this building for more than two decades. We greet each other politely when we come across each other. We hold doors when we meet at the elevator. The one I speak most is the Doorman. At least when I come to the door, I will tell him: the weather is cold, snowy or windy. The most common topic with my neighbor is weather. The first time I came across the word – Alien when I got my Green card. The official name for Green Card is Alien Card. I so got an alien number and that is an important number whenever I have to fill up any official forms, I need to fill in the Alien number. I looked up the dictionary and found out,  Alien  – means someone coming from other countries. They are foreigners but they could stay. There are rules we have to follow, though they are lenient. But we would have chances to deport if we against certain rules and if we pay tax then we will have more Rights in USA. After a few years I took a tour back to Hong Kong where I was born, raised, studied and worked there for many years, my friends and relatives were not as close as before. I seemed to be an alien to them. The first year in New York City was with mixed feelings, although I already got my Alien card and I am an Alien (Green Card Holder) in New York. I still had very deeply memory of my hometown, Hong Kong, and the amazing life there.