CHINA CAMPUS PROSPECT
by Garreth Byrne
Across ornamental lake marking mid campus
Students bestride the mock imperial bridge.
Cement and plaster shapes scrawl the landscape.
Ducks hobble and dip, fish suck kitchen compost,
Birds dart on wayward insects. Laurels, gaunt palms,
Bush and errant undergrowth contour lake edge,
And pendulous willows wave red bottle washer flowers.
II
Was this the mandarin bower of old?
These girls vermilioned concubines
Ensconced in balmy shade of peach blossom,
Ears caressed by wooded flute notes,
Hearts humoured by liquid zhang pluck
In timeless days of languid dynasty?
Were these the warlord’s men in silken robes
Pondering Confucius or talking battle art,
Or making premeditated chess moves?
Far from slug swamps of fevered rice fields,
Vermin-ridden hamlets and hovels of woodrot,
Floating butterflies curled over pavilion tiles
And wind-borne petals charmed a porcelain scene.
III
Today New China students line canteen counters,
Take away wu kwai noodle and stir fry portions
In styrofoam cartons or light metal pans
To pick, in bunked dormitory huddle,
Their sauced-steeped meat and veg with deft,
Chopstick prodding. Lichen, fungus and grime encrust
The grey, musty climate-scarred block walls.
IV
Hearlding sunset, strategic campus tannoys
Pulsate airborne western melodies
Or wistful Chinese jingle-jangle tunes.
Small sure-foot people tread broken footpaths,
Skirting piled-up, dank rusted rubbish bins
Where rats skitter from barrel to barrel, then back
To shrub and weed. Loose sewage tang contests
The scent of Hundred Flowers and cooking smells.
Extramural vendors ply pineapple pieces
And dubious pastries to hungry passers by.
Wind ruffles lake surface and susurrates
Leaves in the green tendril-rampant weed world:
A furtive purposeful rodent empire.
Zhang Chinese stringed instrument
Wu kwai five yuan, enough to buy a takeaway snack
April 12th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
If poetry were a component part of the Olympic Games this piece would easily win the golden medal for capturing a glimpse of a modern golden dragon campus. Congratulations Olympic winner, Garreth !
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