Robert M. Simmons  

from Tracings (Poems 1964-1992)

                Lu Chang and Fong Shi

Lu Chang tongue-lashed Fong Shi

before a crowd in the marketplace,

among chickens, pigs and baskets of fish.

Enraged by Lu Chang's accusations,

the crowd raised the dust of twenty horses

as it scrambled down the road

towards Fong Shi's palace.

Flanked by priests and bowmen,

Fong Shi appeared on a balcony

above the babbling crowd.

Lu Chang is a liar he told them,

but if they dispersed quickly

their error would be forgiven.

The crowd scattered

like a fist full of willow leaves

tossed in the wind.

The palace guards that night

surrounded Lu Chang's hut

in the glow of a melon colored moon.

It was whispered in the marketplace

that fishermen had seen Lu Chang's head

drifting downstream

with the peach blossoms towards Chinkiang.

                          © 2003 by Robert M. Simmons

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Subjects: poems about, power, suppression of truth, poetry, poems

Lu Chang and Fong Shi