The Great Wall
stone
upon stone upon stone
upon
mountains
of
stone upon stone
assailed
by mongrels
and
monsoons,
by
warriors, wind and wandering
standing
still
stillness
standing
in the
village
each
brick laid by hands
and
heart to shelter
and
save the spirit
of
children protected
by
labour from labour
the
donkey lies at peace
as the
dog, alert, patrols
the
straw of his rest
out of
love for the hooves
that
never, that never…
into
the valley of earth
the
walls, the world, engulfing, embracing
the
small lives of beasts
upon
the earth, within
the
earth, beyond the reach
of
wind, the lash of cold, the fist
of
heat
three
old men as crevassed as
the
dirt beneath their eroding bench
grin,
not a tooth among them, and deny the chance
to
have their image taken
away
from
them
themselves
only
themselves
together
on the bench
in the
sun
in the
valley
in the
clean dirt
of the
earth
sustained
quiet
now
the
last steps up the hill alone past stages, acts,
theatre
of man and woman and child
upon
the snow crusted earth of the worn path
towards
the old school
the partridge awakes, shocking
the solitude
with thunder flight from this
moment of earth
then
the
ancient walls appear
earth
and stone and school,
school
no more,
though
the chalk on the wall testifies
children
once learned here,
learn
here still,
that
walls crumble and fall
fall
down
in a
world divided
by a
great wall
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