Luyện nghe bài hát Tibetan Side of Town

Through rutted streets of Kathmandu
Dodging crowded humans cows dogs -
constellated pools of bluewhite
Bright against walls

The butterfly in my lasered eye still seems
To hold that last shot of red sun through haze over roofs
Everything moves like slow in this atmosphere
as dreams
With sewage, incense, dust and and the smoke of brick kilns and cremations -
Tom Kelly's bike rumbles -
we're drinking on the Tibetan side of town.

Beggar with withered legs sideways on skateboard, grinning
There's a joke on somewhere but we'll never know
Those laughing kids with eyes must be in on it too
With their memories of a culture crushed
By greed

young mother by the temple gate
Covers her baby's against diesel fumes
That look of - you can see it still -
Not yet masked by the hard of a woman's
Struggle to

Hard bargains going
When you're living on the side of town.

Big red Enfield lurches to a halt in the dust
Last of engine leaves a ringing in the ears
That fades into the rustle of bare feet and slapping
And the baritone moan of long bronze
by monastery walls.

Prayer flags crack like whips in the
Sending to the world - tonight the blows east
Dark opens to warm yellow room and there
Are these jugs of hot millet beer
and I'm sucked the scene like this liquor up
This straw

tungba sliding down -
drinking on the side of town