The Emperor's Poet - Sharon Patterson.

Mist, white as rice paper,
hangs over the Imperial Gardens
of the Summer Palace near Beijing.

Vendors haggle with tourists
over the price of Gucci purses
and Rolex watches.

A poet carries a bucket
of charcoal-tinted water
and a life-sized brush
draws Chinese characters
on the stone pavers.

It's a poem, our guide says
as the poet forms his gift.

Diluted ink penetrates his palest of days
but the guide has not time to stop
to wait for a poem to flow
from the poet's brush.

Later we find his words
fading into the stones
shadows carved on the paper morning
undecipherable and indelible.