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Long View from Mutianyu Matt Damsker |
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To Vici Shai Din explained: One thousand steps, Or the cable car. So swaying upward I rode toward Mutianyu's perfection, Its Wall stitched On its mountain, A seam and ornament Of Earth -- No, you said, It can't be seen from space, Though we like to think it can. An hour north of Beijing We had stopped along the way For lunch, at a factory of cloisonné. |
Copper pots and copper wire Enamel fired in the old designs -- The dragon livid, songbird in the pine, Chrysanthemum in gold, in red, The swelling, necking vases And teacups so thinly laid They seemed lit from within. I bought, and would not bargain -- Why insult the Yuan springs? Enough to stash some treasure And roll toward the crest of Ming endeavor, Which endures in rock wedded, Shai Din said, By lamb powder and a protein paste. In easy awe of the Great Barrier-in-Chief, The China sun unbaffled, the wind low In a ringing cold, I stepped, stumbled, clung,  |
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