Marc Vincenz

SUZIE LAM SCORNS THE HAPPY MARRIAGE DATING AGENCY

   Apartment 44B, Victoria Court, Tsim Tsa Tsui, Hong Kong Toes

Twenty-something Suzie Lam, my dirty-weekend fling, tells me identity is a fickle thing, says everyone grows up wanting to be a cowboy or an astronaut, when all we really need is to cross a river without getting wet. Suzie wiggles her black-nail-polish toes and spoons herself Häagen-Dazs straight from the tub.

For some reason she likes to eat in bed.

Husbands

If you don’t know who you are how can you go find a husband who can walk straight on two feet? When you want to grow up, you’ve got to shed your skin. Yes, I’ve become quite a snake she says, and hisses. In my case it was a shabby straw hat, parents who couldn’t write or read and a cat named Ding Dong who was afraid of mice. In Szechuan everything trembles beneath your feet so there’s nothing really to stand on. Hong Kong, on the other hand, is built on promises.

Now there’s a dribble of ice cream on her chin and I’d love to lick it right off, only I know she wouldn’t go for that.

Words

I used to keep a diary, all my history narrowed down to a thin disguise. Now only what’s still to come serves a purpose. At the dating agency there’s no such thing as a happy marriage. Normally the men arrive in a taxi, sometimes with a bunch of peonies, hair greased back into a quip. They know if I’m not interested, I just tell them let’s just be friends then. I’ve never finished a single date.

She licks her fingers, fluffs her pillow and stares at the fan on the ceiling.

Chatting

The QQ Chat Service is an excellent thing, the internet draws a higher class of men. Most Chinese marriages are not built on love, you know, but I’m not willing to compromise, not just yet.

Besides, I know you’d never leave your wife.

Marc Vincenz was born in Hong Kong to British-Swiss parents. He lived and worked in Shanghai for many years running an industrial design company. More recently, he moved to Iceland where he works as a freelance journalist and literary critic. He is Poetry Editor for the international webzine Mad Hatters' Review and is a member of the editorial board of the Boston-based Open Letters Monthly. His poetry has been published widely. Recent work has appeared in Möbius, The Poetry Magazine, Poetry Salzburg Review, Nth Position, elimae and Ducts Journal. His latest chapbook, Upholding Half the Sky, was released by MiPOesias, and is available from MagCloud.