Boat Ride on West Lake (Pastoral)

 Nie Zhenzhao asked me to write a poem about West Lake in Hangzhou, a frequent subject of Chinese poetry. He wants to do a collection of poems by foreigners about West Lake. 

Boat Ride on West Lake (Pastoral)

I can swim
better than
talk
& walking’s
just the same,
if I
remember
how.
Swim against
tide,
tire quicker
(I do) …
or when
you let
tide
rule &
you’re pulled
under.
The echo of
the mountains
on the lake,
just like
for oodles of
years. But
at your back
the lake is
bound by
Metro Anywhere.
It’s local v.
universal, to
belabor the
shibboleth.
A few
blocks away
shirts
blowing on
tenement
line,
just like
the home
I thought
I
imagined. No
one will
believe
this of
vast import
to the nation.