throwing the yarrow sticks, Chinese coins,
bones left after ceaseless wars --
Lao Tzu told us

destruction makes way for the new --
the old ones fingered hexagram'd solutions
with the meaning of motion sickness --

darkness births light
made of prophecies
read from tortoise shells and entrails --

war and DNA dances
the eternal turning of change where
high has fallen low and low is beholden

to everything coming and going --
ancient Chinese sages and generals
blew open the doors and shut the windows

to keep out the foreign invaders
with their great wall a line in the sand --
now the walls are shaken and the rivers gorged

while the rich party and the people mourn
the dead ways of their ancestors
in communist temples --

'let the games begin' is an old Chinese saying ...