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# Made in China
- URL: https://www.hawkword.com/poetry/made-in-china/
- Published: 2021-07-11T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2021-07-11T12:00:00.000Z
- Description: I need to go to Chinatown” I tell my closest friend "An errand for my folks – don’t frown you know they cannot fend We’ll get it done and then we’re free we’ll hit a Village bar Perhaps it’ll turn into a spree and we...
- Author: A. Gee
- Tags: Poetry, Allpoetry Import, #Import 2026-04-25 19:56

I need to go to Chinatown”  
I tell my closest friend  
"An errand for my folks – don’t frown  
you know they cannot fend  
We’ll get it done and then we’re free  
we’ll hit a Village bar  
Perhaps it’ll turn into a spree  
and we can take their car!”

We’re seventeen, so car, and drive  
are words beyond compare  
We get to town, park by some dive  
There’s duck sauce in the air  
I have my fake ID with me  
Besides, no one will card  
Those were the days when we were free  
Yep, total disregard

I see a small shop cross the street  
Can’t read the hieroglyphs  
The tell take snake sign, though, that’s it  
A pharmacy for sniffs  
We both walk in, I take the note  
My father gave me, and  
\-- here really starts the anecdote  
“Does someone understand?”

“Hey, white boy, show me what you got”  
Her voice clear as a bell  
Her face, what can I say, she’s hot!  
As if you couldn’t tell  
The piece of paper in my hand  
Is in Chinese of course  
I hand it to her, and just stand  
My voice suddenly hoarse

She looks at it, and starts to laugh  
So beautiful, but wait  
The kind of laugh that cuts in half  
My heart doubles its rate  
“wwwwhat’s wrong”, I blurt out, in a rush  
What was this cursed chore?  
“That’s a request for Chinese Brush  
That what you came here for?”

Still not a clue, I’m like, “it’s paste?  
For teeth or for your gums?”  
She laughs again, my god, that waist  
My ears do feel like drums  
“It is for men, no, not for teeth”  
She tells me it’s a scam  
It’s then I wish the ground beneath  
Would take me as I am

“It’s for my dad”, I stammer then  
Will she believe my truth?  
“I didn’t know it was for men  
I thought it’s for his tooth”  
She laughs again, bit kinder now  
And hands me a small box  
I pay, I don’t remember how  
And run like from the pox

Been forty years, I am a dad  
A grandfather of four  
But let me say, I’ve never had  
A more embarrassing chore  
Wow forty years, I’m miles away  
But I still count my luck  
Though overweight, and mostly gray  
Not been back to that block

---

**Author notes:** This is absolutely a true story, happened in New York City, in 1981\. For those curious, this is a SFW search https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+chinese+brush