Luyện nghe bài hát Tibetan Side of Town

Through rutted winding of Kathmandu
Dodging crowded humans dogs rickshaws -
constellated pools of bluewhite
Bright against darkening

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

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

Pretty young mother by the gate
Covers her baby's face diesel fumes
That of concern - you can see it still -
Not yet masked by the hard lines of a
to survive

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

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

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

Sweet sliding down -
on the Tibetan side of town