Forbidden Smog

From Jingshan peak
They surveyed the world
From the heart
Of The Middle Kingdom

All around sprawled Beijing
The forbidding North
With the Emperor’s city
And beyond, the high mountains

While to the south
The fertile fields
Feeding millions
Serving their emperor

Today
Today is a good day
So I see a few blocks beyond
The city of gold and red

But in the weeks I am here
I will never see the mountains
Which once, were just there
It would have seemed, beyond the red walls

Until I leave
Bicycle into them
And finally escape
Beijing’s smog