Autumn in Another Place

Crisp blue November sky
and brittle plane trees;
the autumn is only subtly different
in this far place.
No matter how lonely it gets,
comfort comes with the familiarity
of only the past few months.
Extending before that
just speculations conjured
from books and fantasies.
The way the gray old buildings
sit like cracked tombstones,
the warming way steam billows
from vats of hand-pulled noodles.
The ugly street you develop a fondness for.
These are the things that remind you why you did it.


This is something I wrote recently when reflecting on a cold afternoon around 汉口西路 in Nanjing, November 2009.