Dashanzi/Alexandria

Dashanzi is an artist's colony in Beijing, where they make contemporary art worth noticing.

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Dashanzi/Alexandria

Two factories, once built missiles--
the one on the water,
bay licking the pylons--
the one between beltways
weeds still in a windy city.

The artists came, subdivided
hung things from exposed beams
framed them under vaulted ceilings,
covered the cement with color,
and smashed the walls to windows

I went with my mother
to shop-- we bought pottery
and with my father--
we bought my mother the portrait
of a small, shaggy dog--
done in woodcut--
under a table like in Paris.

I went in a group
to see-- under supervision--
walls covered and screaming,
and the man asked,
"What do you think of Mao?"
and we could not tell him,
like he wanted,
that it went beyond 30%,
-- we didn't know.

I saw there--
two fish, in a tube
face-to-face, in a clear sky
and thought it made a good torch
for shadowing smooth expressions
and peering into high windows--
glowing embers, I went home
and found, I was covered
inside, and screaming.

Alone, now--
I say, it went beyond 30%
went beyond percent at all,
outpaced Mao,
the beams, the ceilings
could not be reclaimed
held under paint and light--
came here with the tides,
and followed me beyond them,
to the dry hills and flood-plains.

The man we trapped
slammed against our darkness--
he holds me, still--
made of me a room.