Haiku for the week

Sunshine and coughing -

The city's late April gifts -

Play on the memory.

The approach of summer always seems to bring with it one of the worst of the 'Beijing colds'. I have been very ill since last Sunday. I was similarly afflicted at the end of April or early in May in my first year here - just as news of the SARS outbreak had finally been released here (it had already been in progress for well over a month, but the government had been trying to keep it a secret). I wonder if it's the wheezy cough and the rasping headache (yes, I'm sure all of us here thought we might have SARS for at least a day or so during that jittery time) as much as the similarly blue skies that's been dredging up the memories of that first summer here this past week. Or perhaps it's the prospect of my imminent departure that's prompting me to reflect on my memories of nearly 10 years living in this city... and I'm wistfully focusing on what were, paradoxically, some of the best of those memories.