by Daren Shiau

Desafinado

I was waiting to cross the road at the junction of Cross Street and Robinson Road the other day when suddenly the No Parking sign uprooted itself from the pavement. There was a crunching sound as it wiggled its last few inches out. The skinny thing streaked down the sidewalk past where I was standing. At the traffic light it took the opportunity to do a little taunting jig in front of the cars while the light was still red. The lady standing next to me was dumbstruck. I put my envelopes on the ground and would have rushed out to subdue the sign but it was dancing to a bossanova tune I really, really like.


Picking

Picking our favourite colours at that Dempsey Road café, I take "light pink". Stacey excitedly picks "sunset orange", the stock colour of the new Nissan convertible.

Even "black" is not somber enough for you. It has to be "tiefschwarz" which you explain means "deep black". In your mind, probably as heavy the inner pages of Conrad's Heart of Darkness you carry around. Not blacker though as your brief and sudden smile as I mention his name: a rupture of sunflowers.

("Desafinado" and "Picking" are from Daren Shiau's fourth book, Velouria.)