playing in the corner of my childhood garden, where they have installed a small stone fountain, where two tiny elastic kittens frollick -painfully adorable. a hand reaches over my head pouring a huge magnum of champagne into the fountain...it will be too much for their metabolisms, i pull them out; dazed and dripping, mewling piteously.
flying over shanghai in winter.
buttoned up warmly against the cold winds that tickle my cheek, i soar over the beautiful, silent snow-covered city. below my feet a few cars trickle along roads and highways, in the distance the wheels of industry turn, constructing futuristic, yet ancient towers. we are on our way to the springs in the hills where there is a winter festival; couples strip off their clothes and dive joyously into the freezing water.
i'm flying a bit lower now, a little wary of brushing my heels on roof-tops. up ahead a tall, pale-pink spindly tower looms. we reach the festival and commence eating while trying to talk in mandarin to an old man, and yelling at an american man who tried to kill the kittens.
copyright 1994 lisa bode