I think this works well, Colin. The italics do a lot to hold it together.

bw
SallyE

on 21/7/04 2:23 am, hui dewar at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> * shows beginning and end of italics
>
>
>
>
> Treading on eggshells
>
>
>
>
> If you ask me, Jack is still Jack.
> Okay. So his suit is different
> from the Sun Yat Sen outfit
> he wore in Wuhan in 88,
> when I taught him his first words
> of English. He'd always said
> Shanghai was the place for clothes.
> "You look like a film star", I say.
>
> *"And you're trim, taut and terrific too."*
>
> he snaps back, as he steps out
> and steers my arm along
> Zhao Jia Bang Lu. It's night
> and the violet-grey sky lit
> by a thousand neons waking hits
> the extra bit of gold on his glasses.
> I begin to feel badly dressed
> but Jack jokes, or half jokes
> that I'm fine. I'm a foreigner.
> Kudos in itself - for now.
>
> *"Enjoy it while you can. It won't last."*
>
> Tastes like ice-cream with a pinch of salt.
>
> Down in Xu Jia Hui
> the dudes in the ads all look like me,
> light-skinned, high-nosed and round-eyed.
> "I'd rather be bohemian.an intellectual."
> The heroic stance.
>
> *"Forget that" laughs Jack.
> "It was always trouble.
> People judge you from your make
> of suit, or what you ride.
> Take the 21-geared bikes
> when Shanghai's flat as a frozen lake."*
>
> "If Lei Fung were alive, he'd turn in his grave" I add,
> and wonder if I'll venture onto thin ice.?
> "What about John Keats, Bertrand Russell,
> Sylvia Plath, all that?
>
> *"I want the yolk and not the shell,
> and you needn't say
> that you see shell, without the egg."*
>
> Still, it has it's compensations.well,
> the lift attendant pushes back the shopping-centre scrum,
> except for me, and I slip in - a privilege
> received in weakness won't offend -
> while Jack goes on,
>
> *"Old times.Oh yeah.
> like we wanted the opium wars
> imported drugs, concessions, Hong Kong."*
>
> We get our DVD's and leave the shop,
> it's Santa Claus and Christmas lights,
> where Jack ignites a cigarette and smiles at last,
> concludes I haven't changed,
> that he'd like to stay in touch
> before he moves on with the first puff
> of his American tobacco.
>
>
> Colin