Day 8

Had to get out early,
My life was in danger,
I was in the path of Typhoon Mangkhut,
Just me and no other,

Not three mill Chinese with no place to go,
But flimsy apartments,
Or ex-pats whose flights left three hours past mine,
After the airport shut down in Shenzhen,

Oh, what a story I can tell my kids,
Their dad's near brush with death,
The sixty that died in the Philippines,
Proves that I should have left.

Happy ending!
Now we can laugh about,
How I was back in bed two hours after,
My thirteen hour plane ride had made it out.

Day 7

Know what you don’t see here?
Those figures of fam’lies,
The white stick drawings on the back of cars,
Explaining who they be,

You also don't see many harnesses,
Even fifty feet up,
It's representative of the freedom,
Enjoyed within China's repressive gov,

It is hard to see the ones beaten down,
'til you talk recklessly,
Their eyes widen as they look around them,
For the authorities.

But that's not odd,
Anywhere you might go,
We all try not to live in the margins,
To not bring attention from overlords.

Day 6

Here’s something I’ve noticed,
Real east west difference,
Not the food, the language or traffic norms,
Not even politics,

It’s what the men do on really hot days,
Least Beijing and Shenzhen,
To cool the body they roll up their shirt,
Letting the heat escape through belly skin,

They tie it off somehow or let it sit,
Propped up by a round gut,
Mine is so hairy that would not do much,
Same story with my butt,

Too much info?
‘T’s’in the name of research,
How will we ever bridge our differences,
‘fwe hide things ‘cause they make our egos hurt?

Day 5

It’s hard to remember,
Just what I did, really,
Tired from being up all night previously,
Then passing out early,

Heat so humid,  back of my shorts were wet,
Got tired of Chinese food,
Saying xie xie no longer gives me joy,
Yet I feel saying thank you would be rude,

The PSB keeps demanding changes,
You can’t argue with them,
Government opinion will e’er come first,
Before good opinion,

But that’s not new,
It’s the same where I’m from,
Meeting diff’rent people in foreign lands,
Highlights this common human condition.

Day 4

He is not unhappy,
He loves his two children,
His parents teach them things about the past,
He says did not happen,

But they’re from a diff’rent generation,
They still love Chairman Mao,
They will never accept the new China,
With its freedoms that he says it has now,

Not that the government doesn’t control,
Or at least it tries to,
But he would not give it all up to move,
‘Cause China’s not bad, too,

He’s got his friends,
Family and his work,
He likes the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Trump,
But he’s not missing out on any perks.

Day 3

Wasn’t going to do this,
Got nausea coming on,
Part jet lag, part haze, part Chinese pizza,
Part need television,

Saw a tree today that was a cell tow’r,
A clever invention,
Made, looks, without the proper procedures,
Like most everything else in Shenzhen,

Because here there is a lot of people,
With plenty more to spare,
When you have loads of a commodity,
You can build with no care,

For safety’s sake,
Sure makes for a great scene,
You have to do something, then go ahead,
Of course there’s lots of suffering not seen.

Day 2

The clothes theough the window,
Hang on the balcony,
As if there is no room for a closet,
In this entire country,

I saw the same when I was in Beijing,
Not ev’ry place for sure,
Just enough to make me think ‘bout the folks,
For whom this condition’s become inured,

The same people that I see in the streets,
How small must their lives be,
Shoulder to shoulder e’en out in the world,
A close-knit soci’ty,

Who’m I to say?
Space doesn’t mean a thing,
Certainly not a better living state,
For my own country’s vast majority.

Day 1

Much of the ads are white,
The subway is yellow,
The sky is grey, but I've an umbrella,
Unlike much other folk,

Riding their two-wheelers on the sidewalk,
Some motorized, some not,
The Oct-Loft neighbourhood's waiting for me,
Once I finish the short nitro I bought,

It's three thirty in the morning for me,
That will change in two days,
When my body catches up with my brain,
Then I may find my way,

Like we all want,
Travel broadens the mind,
It shows you things are the same ev'rywhere,
So there's really nothing you need to find.