Transcription of discussion with Farahnaz

I hung out with my MA World Lit classmate Farahnaz the other day. We got to talking about stuff and as we were leaving she presented to me her so-called transcription of our talk on that day and told me to compose a poem using the gist of the discussion, since I'm such an arty-farty Humanities student. But since I was already out of my most recent literary-fury bout, I haven't been able to come up with anything since. So why don't you guys give it a shot and write something of your own using what you can read in the picture.

Diving into the lake

Here I am pushing your button
Watching you tense up little by little
Day by day I up the voltage
I have tosay you're getting used quite nicely

But there'll be the day when from just seven
I'll turn it right up to eleven
You'll explode right through the roof
While I'll be ROTF at this mobid merriment

I learned it from a great teacher sometime ago
She'd go through the roof without me trying
Before crushing down into me at terminal velocity
And I graduated the first time I tried it intentionally

I guess I am a little sorry for doing this to you
You deserve better in light of who I am to you
But those who stick around after I pushed their buttons
see me for who I am, then I'll stop this self-punishing amusement

But many went away the first time I pushed theirs
I tell myself it's alright, it's a filtering process
Just like you, now walking away looking rather irate
Leaving me like a kid whose RC plane just dove into the lake.

Iranian girls: or the funny thing with modern warfare

There are three girls in my class who came from Iran
I love their accent and the way they pronounce 'ih-RAHN'
Fun-loving, friendly beauties who wouldn't even hurt a fly
So please, masters of war sir, never mistake them for enemy combatants.

When they speak, it's the American accent that they try to affect
They suck cancer from that great American export, those Marlboro cigarettes
Heck, their fair skin makes them look like your daughters back in DC
And judging by their liberal ways, you should have given them green cards already.

If you go looking for the Axis of Evil, don't harm these girls
Go after Ahmedinejad and the Ayatollah, not their long-suffering people
Don't take over what their tyrants did to them, by pointing your gun barrels
at them for truth be told, they despise all this pseudo-religious nonsensical babble.

You know how funny modern warfare is, if you learn a thing or two from Iraq
How today's vengeful innocents can become tomorrow's bomb-strapped insurgents
You charge in hunting for Talibans in all their mosques and every single one of their schools
When those Talibans simply waltz right in behind your marines with every single one of their seventy-two virgins.

So please all of you, masters of war, 'The Star-Spangled Banner' singers
Remember this fact, before it's Operation-Liberation-Whatever all over again
A country is made up of her citizens, not her keris-kissing, 'Allahuakbar'-chanting dictators
And when you nuke a country, you'll mostly kill innocent people, not their well-hidden dukes.

A girl from Santa Monica

I once had a girl in Santa Monica
but i fucked her up real good
and she me in her month-long swell mood
but who keeps score with this sorta thing

so she now lives in the state of Virginia
where it snows all day and they sleep all night
and you read linguistic books by the dim candle light
you pretend its okay with vodka every lonely night

why do we keep doing this to ourselves like were addicted
to self-punishment so we keep getting hurt
and when we do find happiness we push it away
open the door, go out on the street try our best not to stray

I need to go somewhere where there's no one around
that way I'll stay sober and have no one else to blame
but there's so many people in Santa Monica
where I once had a girl who gave me this obvious scar

Empat tahun sekali

A new man comes calling
And you, sayang, like a proper young girl
Wilt and melt everytime he calls.
You loved him even more when he brandished his four-inch keris
Man had guts, you have to admit, for taking that big a risk.
After all your former man is the complete opposite
of him; spineless, senseless and sen-less; an utter parasite.

A new man comes calling
And he is the picture of piety & Islamic values
The Quran and Sunnah are the only places he takes his moral cues
You'll surely kiss his sole when the two of you get married
Just as long as you are the only woman that he decides to marry.
He leads jemaah prayers and you swear he knows what it means
Buy you don't know that the prayer he leads is his only one that day.

A new man comes calling
With a steady income and consultation fees on the sides
Enough for food, roof and his sweet new ride
He doesn't flaunt, although he does have a bit of wealth
He knows that those who overeat are the ones with a big belly.
Once in a while he fills up the tank of your Proton Savvy
But only after he takes the change you keep for your toll money.

And when another new man comes calling
He, in a heartbeat, points out his rival's many flaws
And you listen to his words like it's the land's law;
"That man is not religious, and not even a pure Malay
Not masculine like me sayang, and in all probability a closeted gay!"
But by that time his is already a lost game, he had no other plan
For you've forgotten your four years together and found yourself another new man.