Unpacking

When you get to unpack the case, you’ll find

the folded river like a paper crane;

the courtyard, the terrace and the blind lane

have travelled with you, nothing’s left behind.

In some garment, in the collar or cuff -

the smell of rain. The lamppost under which

the poor sold bargains pressed hard by the rich

has come with you and can’t be shaken off.

Each time you inhaled, breathed in the air

and your lungs bloomed like trees of night jasmine,

the shapes of old yarns, skeins of old chagrin

are coded in your baggage tags somewhere.

The bends of roads, the blends of diesel smoke,

a certain blur of traffic and townsfolk.