Hong Kong Beat (Poetry)

Do you remember a bar, Louella?
Do you remember a bar?
The helloing and the going
And the frantic to-and-froing,
And the beat of feet back and forth in the street,
And the voice of the fortune teller?
And the blue bay view, old traditions and new,
The banker and the medicine seller?
Do you remember a bar, Louella?
Do you remember a bar?
And the humming and the drumming
Excitement overcoming
Our reserve, and its verve rousing every nerve
To the pitch of a city dweller?
And the heart of Hong Kong aching for Suzie Wong
And her wannabe-an-artist fellah?
Do you remember a bar, Louella?
Do you remember a bar?
And the wheeling and the dealing,
The cigar-smoke-clouded ceiling,
And tycoons in tea rooms on hot afternoons
Or gambling in the cellar?
And the beat of the feet down an East-West street
Danced a free-trade tarantella?
No more, Louella, no more.
Only the skyscrapers soar
And the feudal landlord knocks on the door.
No sound in the street but the fading beat
Bouncing echoes off concrete
Blocks where passing cultures meet,
And the ground vibrates from the score of feet
Departing, Blighty-bound.