Sailing to Chimerica

with a hat tip to Niall Ferguson whose politics I will continue to abhor even if I must concede admiration for his talent as a wordsmith



If it pleases a poet

He may sit and count

The pedi-cabs passing

Outside his Chelsea abode

As a measure of time’s

Progress 

And today he’d likely

Find their number

Exceeds what he’d

Encounter outside 

His hotel room
In Guanzhou

If he should

Happen to be there

For business or pleasure

Disposed to count them

Passing there as well 

And the same

Is true of Rolex watches

I might add

Only the other

Way around

Not so much

Never the twain

Shall meet

As East

Has come to West

And likewise in return

So many things

Have been reversed

In the span of just

Thirty year’s time
It's no country for men
Young or old
Unless they have both mind and will
To embrace such dizzying change