The drizzling
                Chang Chun sky trills 

                blue lightning
                through the twilight.

                Retired people practice
                Taiji, arms and legs lifting 

                and lowering slowly-
                about three hundred

                ex-soldiers, teachers, dancers,
                street cleaners. One of them 

                sits in a wheel chair
                moving only his upper body. 

                Some manage with canes.
                Others move as though still 

                young. It starts to rain
                hard, but they're still 

                moving, accelerating:
                a lightning bolt 

                hits and rims the clearing.
                Their limbs flash like wings.

Copyright © Kevin Dobbs, 2003.  All Rights Reserved.