“
The Long and Winding Silk Road
We are cut of one cloth,
so many feet to the bolt of silk
that stands on a factory floor in Shenzhen
to fashion Hawaiian shirts for Tommy Bahama
and wedding Kimonos for Takashimaya
in my dream.
The factory goes bankrupt and the surplus silk sold,
some ending up in the hands of a community theater
for its production of the King and I.
A swathe of white silk undulates
across the high school auditorium stage,
representing the frozen Ohio River
in the play within a play.
Silken strands of our DNA
coil around each other to form a double helix
and we are oblivious actors on a cosmic Silk Road,
trading cultural memes in this human network,
in a play within a play within a dream.
”
”