Dim Sum in Chinatown

We met at ten thirty
on a Sunday morning
for Dim Sum--a bit of heart,
in a busy
Chinatown restaurant.
The Yum Cha
(drinking tea)
experience
takes me back to China.
A trip of a lifetime.
To an industrious
hard working people with
backs bent in two.
Using simple tools
to rebuild modern cities
reeking of
inadequate plumbing
and garbage strewn
harbors.
To observe
these proud inhabitants
of decay
from five star hotels
with a hazy blackened view.
Where east meets west
rich confronts poor
without
birds or trees
to block out the sun
face to face.

Somewhere
inside the debris
lies the heart
of these proud
people as
inside
a wrapper
of
translucent
rice flour
stuffed
with pork
shrimp
and
cabbage.