LAMENT

At first, no envy,

being neither boy nor girl

but a mandarin duck in the river,

on shore a phoenix

I dreamt I grew three heads

soaring on three pairs of wings

Hearing a baby, it seemed a fox,

if an old man’s moan, a deer,

if a curse, the bark of a raccoon dog,

a groan the complaint of a mythic monkey

Across the valley, red sand strewn like foxtail millet,

above the peak, smoky clouds, ballads

I can’t remember,

coiled dragons, mountain peaks

all in ritual worship

Fearless at first

I squeezed silkworms, smashed flies,

chased a many-banded krait, rifled a bird’s nest,

heartless as an owl, sad as a dabbling duck,

my desires mayflies, violet sea-snails

beside a shallow sea,

this song I sing no one understands

so call it lamentation