HONG KONG Hibernicon

Terence Winch

There is a secret place where all the books
are printed in the secret Chinese future.
Chinese soldiers (all toothless) don’t like my looks.
That’s okay, I don’t either anymore. It’s nurture
versus nature again. Shakespeare said it best:
Men can breathe eternal lines in his shade.
But what about women, and dogs, and all the rest?
There are glorious, gorgeous, and marvelous parades
going on here. Everybody thinks they’ve read Shakespeare.
Everybody knows Ben Jonson sang to the birds
because thatís what birds do. If I disappear
in San Francisco, it won’t be for lack of words.
It will be because tomorrow in Hong Kong
you can only sing if you have a permit for the song.