I tried to make the account as objective as possible but human frailty
always creeps in and can be turned to advantage, I hope.

Thanks,

Colin


----- Original Message -----
From: "arthur seeley" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 8:30 AM
Subject: Re: newsub/market ( Colin)


> This is a beautifully drawn extended metaphor. Apart from an evocative
> picture of a time and place it casts a bright beam wider. Thanks Arthur
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Colin dewar" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 6:49 PM
> 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
> > _________________________________________________
>