Foxes - an original poem written in 平遙
Looking down from the south-west corner
of PingYao city wall
we see forty-two silver foxes, each
in a wire cage with an asbestos roof.
The south-west corner of PingYao city wall
is not in good repair:
outside is a stinking ditch; inside
are forty-two uneasy foxes with silver fur.
The foxes turn unhappily in their cages
and cry, guard dogs bark,
peacefully and contentedly
sheep in their pens eat their food.
Image Source: Hans Holbein the Younger, at Wikimedia.
Pingyao is in Shanxi Province, about two hours south-westish from Taiyuan. The city tells that in the Nineteenth Century it was a (the?) centre for banking in China. I visited in the autumn of 2001, when I was teaching in the nearby city of Taigu. Its city wall is indeed impressive, but in places, in 2001, you would gain a more positive experience if you gazed into the distance, not looking down to the left or to the right. Perhaps, in 2016, the fox farmer has been moved on and the ditch cleaned and turned back into a moat.
Here's a post I made a couple of months ago with some photographs of Taigu.
Thank you for reading @richardjuckes