Repairing a Poem

When I wrote a ‘Snap beginning with a line by Fanny Howe’ days ago, I used the phonetic spelling of a phrase in Mandarin, spoken by a young American student, Tom, who is learning the language here. I wrote ‘doswa’ for him coming to get some water, and apparently it should be ‘da shui’ – to get water. I am grateful to my student and friend Wong Li for the knowledge. Here is the corrected poem:


'I'd speak if I wasn't afraid of inhaling'
the air here is thick with shibboleth
he comes down for da shui not just
to drink but to feel the temperature
expatriot ghettoes breed insecurity
it is shortly after the reason to be jolly
now in the season of promise I pause
with a China Post pen in the air
she points at the page to indicate
press harder to be read push down
to give it all birth to give it all berth

(Snap beginning with a line by Fanny Howe)