Best of all were the single in kin...

Best of all were the single in kinds from China, with the short fuse,
in silver foil colorful as a dragon in a fresh Year's Day
parade: no flash, if it were not that a huge bang.
For those little bewilderments we used to drive specially to Chinatown,
levy them gingerly in the briefcase, as if they had hearts
made of Semtex and proceed back to Berkeley with the faith
that this was an approach to life, straightforward,
unpretentious. over the whole of Advent
we had a ball, Tristan came within an inch
of having his hand swollen off, and when the firecrackers ran gone out
we