Niall 3/4

At Beijing I is

Airport security
Ain’t no thing
Except when it extends
30 kilometers
To Tiananmen Square

The forbidden city
Draws more than just tourists to its
Majestic halls and walkways
The Great Leap Forward range
This is our new model Ming
Pale faced tourist spot lurker
He can go from 0-90 hsph in 60seconds
(That’s hate speech per hour)
When you refuse to join him
For an overpriced coffee in his cousins store
Lying Irish trash he called me
Get the fuck out my country he said
His English was good

Great Wall tour
Starts in a minibus
With an old, white man and
His Philippine wife
“Morning, I’m Australian.”
It’s 6:40 am
Is this how we’re greeting each other now?
“Morning I’m Irish”
It feels unwieldy in my mouth
Why am I thinking of whiskey and coffee?
Blah blah travel blah weather
Blah blah pollution blah politics blah
Blah so I just keep calling you Irish man?
What?
I’m still in the Great minibus of China
“Morning I’m Irish.. Niall I mean”
“I’m Bruce.”
No shit..

At that wall I dropped Bruce like a hot dumpling
Traded him in for a German named Rolf
Retired neurosurgeon
Sleek design
Slightly dicky engine
Traveling for 8 months alone
without airplanes even
Cargo ships, trains, coaches
Maybe the odd minibus
His v8 broke
At tower 20
Leaving me alone
To meet only 6 more people
On the old section
It really is great

Back at the
Chinese box courtyard hotel
My docile Austrian, Thomas
Has been switched out
For excessively young
Excessively talkative
Birmingham lass, Sophie
She knows everything in that
Early 20s way
She tells me she hasn’t eaten western food in 5 months
Between mouthfuls of chocolate bread
She lies in bed
Mouth breathing
until the security forces step in to save me
The Chinese police arrive
And she is made change room
Because male and female
Can not coexist in a room unmarried
(Not even in a hostel mixed dorm)
I didn’t even call them

Tiantandongmen
I could pay more
And enter the temple of heaven
But the sight of
Four old ladies
In ladybird red
Walking and laughing
Singing along to La Traviata
Free in the sun
And another group of old people
Old enough to have forgotten more horror than I have experienced
Singing joyously together
Is enough
The light from above
Touches us all
Each face golden
There is peace
In every dance step
Every glance
Every stone and branch
And as I leave
Enraptured
I think
I must tell others to come
Just don’t use the public toilets