in the Chinese Rotunda

in the Chinese Rotunda
the rheumy-eyed docent says
"you're in the wrong pew"

you look down at her blue-haired
senility, steady-state drunkenness,
shrunken, on the verge of
mummification

giant green Luohan
big-eared arhat offers
fierce brand of salvation
gazing over your head

in the distance fat Tang horses --
are these the blood-sweating
flying horses of Ferghana?