The Encounter.(FOUR POEMS FROM CHINA)(Poem)

 
THE ENCOUNTER 
 
   To have taken the boat downstream 
   to the village, and to find 
   the narrow path up through the bamboo barricade 
   beyond the stony beach 
   where a young woman is hacking at the washing 
   on a stone by the waterside--to 
   have found the pathway's entrance 
   to the village blocked by villagers 
   who closed in sharply and blocked our way, 
   letting three of us go on, cutting two of us off, 
   demanding more money, approaching to inches 
   away, and suddenly the woman standing nearest, 
   knitting woollen sandals for the tourists 
   turns into something else, and the men 
   are a couple of feet away, and another 
   group are waiting up the path, and the closer 
   ones are quickly 
   shaking open hands to warn ...