Screens and Boundaries
If trees sprout cinnabar and seas are gold,
If lotus blossoms grow in gold and blue,
If cranes strike poses by shrill suns as bold
In red as rubies boiled in taboo,
If cats strut round behind a smaller screen
Of deeper crimson, older gold and black,
And vases hold new flowers above their green
Exploding stalks, if glossy cushions stack
Themselves in heaps of silk and comfort, if
The silver stripes of New Year tigers guard
A door of deep hue like a hieroglyph
Of manly love, no one will find it hard
..To name this as the realm of eastern bliss
….Confined alone by time’s exact abyss.