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A Gift From China
I received a gift, a box of coloured pencils
made in China, their finely
sharpened points all lined up
like rainbowed ballerinas
three sultry violets, five different moods of blue
reds, greens and yellows, forty-eight in all
centuries of Chinese tradition captured in a simple
cardboard pack; entranced I hold them, one
by one and rub them gently on the paper
Frozen into a moment of beauty
a Chinese child emerges, faint at first,
then taking breathless form
red painted lips, white frozen leg,
rainbow skirt finely etched around her hips
She skates down rainbows laughing
delighted between the red strips
and the purple ones
one foot hissing through sparkling ice
the other pointing behind, stiff and delicate
frozen into a moment of beauty
Perhaps some Beijing worker
dreaming of a rest-day in the park
packed her in there by mistake
an unintended New Year gift
© Johnmichael Simon
2006
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