New Life Poem by Tom Billsborough

To Chengtu in the South,
Now dispossessed of wealth,
An old man came,
Poor farmer now.
He sits with bitter sorrow
As he stares back to the North,
Yet finds oblivion from strife
Paddling his little boat,
Accompanied by his wife,
Watching their children
Bathing in the clear water,
And butterflies courting
One another and seeing
Two Lotus blossoms on one stalk together;
Taking tea later with his family,
Or else the pure juice of cane-sugar
And thinking how drinking
From plain crockery
Is as good as the finest jade.