Nanjing

Fine drizzle drizzles, and here I am in Nanjing again
French wutong plane trees still talk to each other in Chinese
Rain-flower pebbles look washed clean of blood, sitting in basins of water
by roadsides
they open wide rainbow eyes at travellers

I like Nanjing
I like meeting my friends here in wine-bars
talking about the Fatherland, poetry and women
but these survivors and victims of the Rape of Nanjing
never talk to me of history

NANJING