It's 7.26 a.m. in Linfen it's the 16th of May and
it's probably 7.27 in Gibb River but I'm
in Linfen I'm eating Chinese bananas and drinking
Yunnan Mocha and I'm thinking of how Linfen is Old
London town too how odd I usually think of it as
something putrid like a Philippines’ rubbish tip like Cher-
nobyl like Hades
I never thought on the Narrows
Bridge I'd come to live in Linfen
just to see coal-hearted businessmen and corrupt
government officials take life away and call it
Progress
and I never thought Li Bai would be climbing Tai Bai
flagon clinking teeth rotten from too much wine
brush and inkwell splashing the peach blossom black
when we were Young Poets reading Pound and
watching the sun come up over North Cottesloe Beach
across Rottnest Island
I think I was thinking when I was
ahead I'd be somewhere like Paris cool
fit awash with wine and beautifully loved
contemplating my new book of poems
to be printed bi-lingual on fine art paper
elegant dripping with ennui
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