On China

E X P O S I T I O N


In a documentary on the Yellow River, the filmmaker charts progress, mapping changes shaped by Three Gorges Dam

follows “Jerry” Bo Yu Chen & “Cindy” Yu Shui
  working-class laborers in China’s hospitality industry,
   pleasure-boat tours of Old China catering to Westerners

Jerry & Cindy parroting, “It’s my pleasure.”

*

To prep for Beijing, I vaccinate, pack host gifts,
check garments for holes & tears,
book a date at the beauty school where a fresh class of
  trainees choose names like costume jewelry
 Gwyneth & Eli; Emu & Stella
girls that curl cut & color

in the mirror I watch a woman
pluck a cell phone & cash
from her cleavage

*
In the desert far from water, a hotel rises from the Gobi
Men in suits & pencil-skirted women
greet guests Good evening! Good morning!
Breakfast is on the roof.

The view of The Taklamakan as surreal as painted stage sets.

*

What’s not stocked at markets, off-season in May:

winter melon, new year’s lanterns, ripened pineapple




Banners touting Olympic tourism canvas streets.

*

Holidays, war, & packaged events produce Kong Ming candles

hand-scripted with prayers

wishes on display, I watch
witnesses disengage:

BBQ chefs tending cook-fires,
wait-staff lighting fuel cells
launch heart-shaped lamps - let go

*

the true & the staged

At midnight a white peony explodes in the sky
cascading waterfalls of magnesium and aluminum light
mark a marriage on the dunes


*

Such distance between unplanned feeling, heart’s memory.