Yangtze Sonnet: When the bats come to Wuhan the night comes

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When the bats come to Wuhan the night comes
Over East Lake wide, dark, flat and in flames
On fire at first but the conflagration
On the water’s only the reflections
Of fiery giant smoke stacks spewing
Up sparks. One thought becomes another. Fuck!
The Yangzte was dirty and yellow—Yuck!
I saw heads and an inner tube bobbing
Not Chairman Mao’s of course who swam across
Years ago. Other swimmers do it now.
For all his mistakes they still like Mao.
Why? He was persistent. Coming across
The sky more bats than I have ever seen
Hover, devour, converge and unconvene.