Sonnet to China

With wonders standing still from those times when

Great sages knew much more than we know now,

A time when stars and innards governed men,

So are the marvels of the land of Mao.

Pagoda standing like a sap’ent soul

And staring down the visitors who come

from ‘cross the planet, great and vast and whole;

to hawkers selling Mao they will succumb.

The wisdom of Confucius preaches still

To billions under Communist regime,

and multitudes upon the Square do spill

Where once was heard an agonizing scream.

In Jasmine gardens where the silk worms crawl,

men sit in peace, protected by the Wall.