The last the narrowest corner
in the whole wide world.
There I met with deception.
***
Lying face down on the bed
Someone said to me
You’re more beautiful than ever
The people outside all love you even more than they did.
***
Only one step away from a deception
I could not lay bare.
Your waking might have only lasted minutes.
I wanted to say
the red tablets are like seeds if one looks at them long enough.
What I really wanted to say was
what human beings enjoy most
is, at close distance,
to gather round bleeding wounds.
***
As for all those things on the outside
I wanted to hide them, I could not help myself.
I wanted to grow in a flurry a thousand hands.
I thought to pray to God
to protect you with unconsciousness
I was forced to stand on the side of lies.
***
I’ve come from the outside.
Day after day
my high-strung heart
stores up an intricate thread-like terror.
***
You have made
the bedspread crumpled all over.
Again and again
I have failed to smooth that cotton.
***
I’ve done all I can
to take up your line of sight.
Apart from my hands
I don’t know what else
I can use to shelter you with.
Written By Wang Xiaoni
Translation: 2004, Simon Patton
3ACTunveiled 