"HANOI" - charming city with shades of old Vietnam

Throw-back city with long shopping streets
Ugly buildings amidst colonial charm
Two million motorbikes constantly hounded
By the habitual honking of passing cars
Pockets of green parks
Activity filled lakes
Tranquil temples
The old museum
Scattered with proletariat art
And frayed silk paintings

Chatting workers on low stools
Hurry through their roadside lunch
Swanky tourists on high chairs
Delight in Viet-French fare

My impressions have faded
But clear is the sound
Of a hundred old ladies
chanting the Hail Mary
in their own dialect
filling the cavernous blue
of St Joseph’s cathedral
drowning out the motorbikes
the sounds of Hanoi
Their city to remember

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