Translations from the Chinese/A Pattern in the Mud

by Christopher Morley

Layout 4

A PATTERN IN THE MUD

SOMETIMES, in the slime of a city street,
You will see a clear and lovely pattern
Of little loops and triangles
Imprinted by the tire
Of a motor truck.
Such was the life of No Sho,
The young and tender poet.
The city crushed him,
But he left his runes
In the grime.