A Glimpse Of China 02

From the bright and blinding sunshine,
From the whirling locust's song,
Into the dark and narrow fissures
Of the streets I am borne along.

Here and there dusky-beaming
A sun-shaft broadens and drops
On the brown bare crowd slow-passing
The crowd of the open shops.

We move on over the bridges
With their straight-hewn blocks of stone.
And their quaint grey animal figures,
And the booths the hucksters own.

Behind a linen awning
Sits an ancient wight half-dead,
And a little dear of a girl is
Examining - his head.

On a bended bamboo shouldered,
Bearing a block of stone,
Two worn-out coolies half-naked
Utter their grunting groan.

Children, almond-eyed beauties,
Impossibly mangy curs,
Take part in the motley stream of
Insouciant passengers.

This is the dream, the vision
That comes to me and greets -
The vision of Retribution
In the labyrinthine streets!

By Francis William Lauderdale

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