Terri,
I knew you would get the last line if you read this. It is not just that all
countries are barbarous if you scratch the surface. All people have
barbarous parts if you dig deep enough. And you might wonder what it is in
the protagonist that attracts them to this barbarous place (apart from the
need to eat). ...."though any excuse will do..."
Colin
----- Original Message -----
From: "alderoak" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 9:12 PM
Subject: Re: newsub/market
> I like the contrast between the violence of the market and the prim
urbanity
> of the visitor. Poor man. All he wants is some new potatoes. You can hear
> him wiping his manicured nails clean with every 'unprocessed'
polysyllable,
> 'for instance'.
>
> Instead he gets hit with life in the raw - literally. And doesn't even get
> any potatoes.
>
> I love the last line, 'go home to my own barbarities'.
>
> A subtle reminder that civilisation is, as Freud would have it, but a thin
> veneer.
>
> Terri )O(
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Pennine Poetry Works [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of Colin dewar
> Sent: 17 February 2003 18:49
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: newsub/market
>
>
> Market Place, Wuhan.
>
> I have only come for some new potatoes,
> though any excuse will do
> to stroll through the market,
> with its tapestry of flesh and earthy veg-
> stalls selling any food you could imagine,
> dog meat for instance or woodland fungi,
> all of it unprocessed.
> You get your hands dirty
> if you want chicken.
> Buying it is just the beginning.
> Then you must kill it and pluck it and gut it.
> Back home when you buy it,
> the work is half done.
>
> I walk slowly,
> careful where I place my feet,
> watch vendors hot-faced, yelling
> as if they must be paid in blood.
> They have worked long in all weather,
> their skin purple-brown.
> I don't want to worry them
> when I come to haggle for half an hour.
>
> I linger by fish
> that I don't know by name,
> guess at where they lived,
> if sediment or surface
> from shapes of mouth and fin.
> However they lived all
> will be eaten.
> For now they survive in basins,
> less water than fish.
>
> I bought one once, a toothless type
> with a head like a rock,
> almost broke my hand knocking it out,
> was told
> it would have died out of water.
> I recognise eels.
> Their heads are impaled on nails
> and their bodies stripped clean.
>
> Fifteen frogs flop together
> in a net bag, used for oranges at home,
> gather dust on sweating skin.
> Someone buys a bag and uses his shoe as a club
> to beat them to death.
> A pig squeals from a corner
> that I don't go into.
> Then a rat drops when a box is moved,
> and dodges among the tomatoes.
>
> I am distracted by a fight in the vegetables.
> Half an hour of bickering over prices
> has led to a fracas,
> a couple of women with such abuse
> I don't have to know their speech.
> A ragged leek whips the offending cheek
> and then potatoes are thrown in turn,
> the ones I had wanted to buy.
> I will shop here for another half year,
> go home to my own barbarities.
>
> Wuhan. P.R.C. 91/92
> _________________________________________________
>
>
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