10:00 p.m. Beijing in the Rain

We are the last of the customers.
Outside it is coming down hard.
The restaurant girls are ready
to go home. I picture them
on their bicycles in the dark
and the rain,
dodging trucks and busses
and motorcycles
so we can dine late.

I search their faces
for clues to their lives.
I find nothing,
but blank inscrutability.