Rising in a brilliant light
I realize the sheets are tinged blue
from the dye of the China shirt
Jenni bought for your birthday
but didn't mail
because the postal authorities
ask too much
to permit anything
to travel to Taiwan
and so gives it to me
which I sweat through
drinking green tea all day
in the Garden of Five Persons' Tombs
in this city of canals and silk,
or eating the rear foot
of the soft-shelled turtle,
everything but the bones.

This blue dye
leaks into the pores of the skin,
sweats out onto the sheets,
this dye
blue like China porcelain,
like ink,
this blue sky
all smoky now
and covered over with noise.

And Gwan Yin's hair,
blue wisps of embryonic cloud dragon,
floats far, far up in the Shanghai sky
of your blue shirt
smeared across our sheets.

Also by Roger Dunsmore For a Chinese Friend -->

Roger Dunsmore teaches at the University of Montana in Missoula. His most recent book is called Earth's Mind: Essays in Native Literature. His web page is here.
Email Roger Dunsmore at dunfall@gumballpoetry.com

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