| The Train From Suzhou January 3, 1994  |
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Sartre in No Exit
Explores an eternity of sequestration and impotence
'Midst a small circle of intimate friends --
Claustrophobically shut-in intellectuals.
But he should have taken the train from Suzhou,
Settle into the light green soft-seat pleated cushions reserved for foreign guests who
Drink in sweet tea behind white lace
curtains....and the way China
Of itself shapes meaning beyond factuality.
Here,
Without contradiction or innocent memory,
Japanese business-men finger silk scarves;
There,
Two on-time American ladies,
Smile.
Low in the sky,
Winter's afternoon sun floats over river-water;
In parallel moment, we glimpse the turned-back man, towards home,
Figures, for a brief time, bicycle alongside.
Sitting opposite, in blue tam and red sweater, she skims the book in her lap,
Whilst he, the companion clothed in brown and black, sleeps comfortably beside her, --
The woman is already a widow.
Aboard the train from Suzhou is the certainty that time and the Yangze and we are
One confluent reality.
Five minutes out of Shanghai
I see my father, jacketed in dark grey tweed, fedora cocked
at an angle across his right eye,
Strolling a footpath
Quite at ease with himself,
Left shoulder sloped
Westward towards the setting sun.