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Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                             Maybe Li Po was from East Texas?


                               I can remember when I
                               Was Li Po, and not Li Bai

                                    -as Li Po never said


He never drank Lone Star Beer
Wine-drunk, then, he craved a boon
A reflected kiss in the water near
A kiss from the amorous moon

Cf. 300 Tang Poems, Everyman Pocket Poets, Peter Harris ed. and trans.



The story of Li Po / Li Pai’s death has no real sourcing, but it is popular. A dude who gets drunk and drowns while trying to make out with the moon reflected in the water – definitely my people!

I played with the legend in a rhymed quatrain of seven syllables per line. I was sober. Really.