McDonald’s/Africa

by Noriko Osada

Clapped the lid of a garbage box in McDonald’s.
I threw away a plastic cup, some broken pieces of ice, some paper napkins,
and a straw.
I was very scared the moment I threw them out
Feeling I threw out with something other important things
Thought I have no important things.

     I have no important things about me here.
     In McDonald’s.
     I was carried away by the sudden impulse to rush my arm into the garbage box
     To look for some of my important things because of
     Coming back to hear I clapped the lid in my ears any number of times.
     In spite of it there were no important things in the garbage box for me.
     I wanted to rush my arm into the garbage box like the homeless.
     Oh, I was homeless.
     At the large desert in a big peninsula
     around Africa.
     Sometimes I met a group of wild camels like a mirage.

     They walked through my body mumbling something.
     Mumbling something, I walked on the desert.
     No, I was looking for my foods in the garbage mumbling and thinking something about
     desserts.
     If I found leftovers, I would have all of them.
     All of them I would vomit after that.
     Under the blue sky, I was alone. I can not vomit myself.
     I have no words to mumble.
     I have no words here
     Hearing far off the sound of grasses stirring with wind

     In McDonald’s, I heard the sound like the clapped lid of the garbage box.
     It was the voice of store clerks echoed in the shop.
     The voice vomited me, vomited me.
     McDonald’s vomited me.
     Under the blue sky, I walked around in Manhattan
     Far off the sound of grasses stirring with wind.
     Like an empty bag which was given by the supermarket.
     Like a balloon, I roll across somewhere but I didn’t know where was here.
     I liked my situation which is nothing, which is no important thing.

     Around Africa, I would be traveling, maybe.
     In a prairie,
     I would drink rain, have something given by camels, giraffes, birds, rats.
     They went through my body.
     People went through my body.
     Rolling, rolling, under the blue sky, in the big city.
     In a prairie,

     Rolling, rolling, on the grasses
     In the city like shimmering glass.
     I wanna speak something with somebody loudly
     In the city.
     With a lot of spoken words my body would be filled.
     Under the blue sky
     Like sweet desserts I desire to speak words!