The Queen of Hennessy Road

The Queen of Hennessy Road

To call her enigmatic or opaque is laughable-
she makes the Sphinx transparent.
She loves every man, her climax is swift and vocal;
she takes her fee with just the right reluctance -
as though, perhaps, it is she who should pay.

Pale, almond-eyed, exquisite,
she is virgin or whore, leopard or kitten '
the shift is instantaneous - and can summon tears
of ecstasy or pain with a flicker of her eyes.

She has learned quickly, calls all men "honey,
and only six months from the border village
she can moan " I love you in a dozen tongues,
and few men notice the faint intake of breath
that always precedes her lies.

Ah, well, it is merely the languages:
she needs a millisecond to feel the right lie
in this welter of foreign syllables
Give her a year. She will be perfect.

Hong Kong
April 2003