Manchukuo Journey

i.m. Gareth Jones (1905–35)

5.30 -- morning sun burnishes the palace, swallows taking
breakfast on the wing, slice the haze spread over
Outer Mongolia. At Beidzemiao a living Buddha waits.

Two sentries lean at the gate, one sleeping on his feet,
the other singing to himself, and a woman crouches
over a gaudy headdress strand by strand untangling tassels,
silver discs and trailing coral beads. A small boy limps by.
...