From Shanghai to Beijing
in five hours
and 30 minutes
in the “sight-seeing car”
at the cone-shaped end
of a bullet train.
Five hours and a half
of yellow dust-scape
and,
near nowhere,
impenetrable highrises
dropped by
disproportionately large aliens
on their way home.
The reincarnation
of Mao himself
slept soundly
in the seat
beside us.
When Mao disappeared
into the dust-day,
a woman claimed
the window seat.
Mesmerized,
leaning into the view.
Perhaps she had
super-powers
to see more
than the dust
on the trip
between
Shanghai and Beijing.