"13" "Upon hearing his tale, affairs from long ago
began to infiltrate Chen's memory,
although in a disordered and cloudy fashion.
He thanked his old retainer.
A passing dragonfly landed on his sleeve.
'Would you prefer to travel on foot or by some other means?'
inquired the motorized airport staircase,
bowing almost imperceptibly.
'Whoever heard of a high functionary trudging about
on foot?'
protested the cadaverous valet, already beginning
to fade around the edges.
Ascending the scuffed metal steps,
Chen bid his servant farewell.
After a journey of many leagues, the staircase
arrived at a red river moving slowly through jungle.
Two boys swam against the current,
their heads dipping in and out of view.
From his motorized perch, Chen noted how their blow guns
helped them to stay afloat.
He could see clouds of butterflies
suspended above the leafy canopy on the far shore.
Up to this point in his travels, Chen
had marveled at his expeditious conveyance, which
traversed mountains and deserts alike without any action
on his part.
But now he protested in vain as the infernal contraption
sped into the river's shallows.
Chen waved to the boys midstream,
calling for assistance.
Out of earshot, they waved back.
The staircase pushed on through the deepening flow.
As the waters rose around him, Chen's soaked robes
grew impossibly heavy, dragging the former assistant magistrate
down, down into the crimson flux.
The last thing he remembered was his mouth filling
with blood, which he sensed, somehow, wasn't his own."