Queen of Songling Road

 

I am on my balcony wed to

Self-destruction and ever sweating

The big picture.

Does an interloper visit my liver?

Are the walls of my heart fraying?

Will a gelatinous scab lodge in

My medulla oblongata and strike me dumb?

Will my days end in a noxious

Pile of tin and glass.

And then I see her pedaling against the

Rain and the incline of Songling Road on

A very plain bicycle.

Rusted red.

Big clunky frame.

Balloon tires.

She nods her head to and fro

As if to be singing.

She disappears down Nanling Road

And reappears again on Songling Road.

Pedaling against the 

Hill and the rain.

Round and round she goes.

And that is all I know about the

Girl pedaling up Songling Road in the

Rain and singing on this grey day.

That is all I should know.

Gary B. Sanford

Qingdao China

October 2003