It's Still Life

It’s the Soul of Maxim’s Palace

It’s like a happy Chinese meal.
A duck hullabaloo
that’s noisy as jackdaws.
Snappy as vinegar.
A duck hullabaloo
on red tablecloths.
Snappy as vinegar.
Oranges. Gold. As twilight
on red. Tablecloths
the colour of joy,
oranges gold as twilight,
or rain on a tile roof.
The colour of joy
that’s noisy as jackdaws,
or rain on a tin roof.
It’s like a happy Chinese meal.

Maxim’s was my favourite restaurant in Hong Kong when we lived there. As with all Chinese restaurants, they’re noisy, bright, colourful and alive. Poetic form: Non-rhyming Pantoum: abcd/bedf/egfh/gcha ©Misky 2022 Shared with #amwriting #apoemaday on Twitter. Image is from the British Library Manuscript Archive.