the soldier’s dream
I was fifteen when I went to the war
never built with my hands
never knew woman’s love
I’d tilled the soil
in my half schooled way
now I’m an old man
eighty and more
never came home
till now in this dream
you can’t imagine a road so far
track by the green river banks
goes along
willows all the way
yes eighty years have passed
the village with them
now just dry stones
snake haunts
everything gone to seed
people I pass on the way
look right through me
I want to tell familiar faces
how I met the ancients
how wet through
with tears
their clothes were
as if they’d been caught
without umbrellas
but they were
the sky themselves
all the way home
view clouded with weeping
I felt
if only
I were a ghost
there should
be tears
for me
after Cao Cao
1
the ocean
stands me
still
out loud
I make
these lines
deep blue
down from
the cliffs
enduring
above
how
fortunate
to feel
such passion
2
the road
is high and rough
and tortured –
like traveling up
some giant’s guts
bear in my path
and either side
anonymous growling
dusk is homeless
the callous sun
goes
strings on my back
a sleepless strum
and then I hum
accompany myself
a goose chimes in
wild as the wind
ragged as
these climbing crags
rude poem with moon
these lips on mine
‘this night until
the end of time’ –
which girl hasn’t
heard that line?
an open window
and
…
candle gone
simple
smile
curtains
parting
robes
drop
in the moon’s clear voice
my name