Maid of China

? MAID OF CHINA

Torn from the earth, broken on the wheel.
The flames of hell were my next ordeal.
Fondled and filled with a delicately flavoured meal.
Yin and Yang in perfect balance,
I graced the table in a great emperor's palace.
Mongol hordes from Asia's Plain,
Came with horse, sword and warlike mien.
Took me as booty from my regal domain.

Under the stars in a nomad's yurt
Fed with sour cream, asses' milk and yoghurt.
Many years with no fixed abode.
Journeyed west on the old silk road.
Used, abused, a thing of barter.
A Mogul Prince became my master.

Exotic dishes, delicate spices my new diet.
Cool tiled harems where I rested quiet.
Then it was the British who came!
Along with Bengal Lance, Sepoy and drum.
Worst of all, their Vickers Breech Load Gun.
Dragged from my Raj the voyage began.
Part of the cargo of an East India Man.

Plucked from its dank hold, placed on a yawl.
London's Pool being my next port of call.
Placed in the town house of a noble lord.
A thing of beauty I was his reward.
Many hands I then passed through,
Was even used for pawn when the rent fell due.

Me a previously prized delicate beauty,
Obliged thereafter to perform a different duty.
Washing socks, shirts, kerchiefs and frocks.
Then given a crown! Aspidistra this diadem.
Not draped in ermine but in chintz, with a
pom-pom hem.
All supported by a malacca stem.
Once proud queen, attired like a harlequin.

Housed in a musty garret, for years to moulder.
Possibly it was because I had got older.
Sunbeams suddenly invaded that somnolent tomb!
Sweeping away my bleak cells lonely gloom.
Young, brisk, eager voices filled my room.
Gentle hands swept away arachnidan silk.
Revealing my alabaster complexion, like
blue veined milk.

With other booty from Granny's legacy,
I'm conveyed with pride on a modern highway.
Or could the antique road be described thus?
Carried in a plastic bag on a number nine bus.
Expert eyes gaze at my elegant denuded figure.
Manicured nail of Auctioneers finger,
Plucks from me a resonant ring.
Doyen avows there is no doubt! That I am MING!
Several hundred thousand pounds I am worth.
Me! Who was torn long ago from China's earth.

by Don Passmore ?