'31

'31

Ninety-thousand people

living in huts

made of earth and straw,

while on the other side

of the fence

British Shanghailanders

sip pink gin

at the Long Bar.

The Methodist Church

Christmas supper warmed

my aching belly-

just enough to remind me

this December passed none

too quickly;

that Chinese New Year is

just around

the corner.

- December 1997

(submitted to Sacramento News & Review's "Fiction 59" contest)