at an unknown tavern
the drunken hobo
claiming to be the blood relation
of the sun
murmurs
while vomiting violently

O mother this is my heart
the love I could never deliver

during this year
you'd better not
think one thing
say another
do something else

we all can see right through you
with our perfect vision --
20/20

From every angle
I tried to capture your bright smiles
for a colorful dream

Overexposed
the images overlapped
and I had a sweet dark sleep
till dawn

Day and night
a monstrous stomach
wriggles in his bloated belly

******* up
the unblossomed laughter
******* up
the teardrops that moisten a mother’s heart
******* up
the meager flesh under his wrinkled skin
******* up
the indifference in his eyes
and eventually ******* up
from his open mouth a ghastly cry
which we take for soundless
but is in fact at a pitch
well beyond the limit
of our comprehension

the public square is scattered
with traces of wild excitements

hats thrown into the sky are trampled on the ground
shoes danced so fast that their feet couldn't keep up
a brown bear is held tightly in a little girl's hand
her other hand holding the string of a balloon now plucks
at her father's intestines
motionless eyeballs still flicker with last night's fireworks
blood streams out from open mouthes like a passionate song

and the roaring message from a distant festival
can no longer excite any heart to beat again

1.

leaping upward
it finds plenty of room
in the world above

smothering lush green
suddenly lightens

the irrepressible joy of life
springs
up
and down
up
and down

2.

leaping upward
it is pleasantly surprised
to find

the sky is still so immense
the earth is still so vast
the summer is still so green

life is still undefined

filled with hot summer air
the July afternoon
becomes a bulging transparent
balloon

in the treetop a cicada cries
let me out…
let me out…

while the bees with stingers
are too occupied with their own
business
buzzing from one flower
to another

With a soft moist tongue
you set up a sensuous trap
waiting for careless little me
to drop in

and be shocked
at the discovery
that I am such
a tasty prey

Holding its breath
a bugle stands in the shadow
of history
patiently waits
for the approach
of a pair of fiery lips

Triumphantly it will rise
to call up
the hunters and hounds
who will set out before dawn
shouting and barking
for a game
of rabbits
or
humans

At creation
God loves antlers so much
that all day he polishes them
smooth and shiny

Lest these horns be sullied
by clumsy hands
He lets anyone nearby
constantly feel the existence
of their pointy tips

Ambitious politicians
will mass reproduce themselves
to gather votes

And once in power
they will without doubt eliminate
their blood replicas
knowing full well
that they are every cell
as power-hungry
as themselves

April arrived
with a message on my desk
“Call Mr. Lyon—
Urgent !!!”

I dialed the number
“Sorry Mr. Lion can’t come to the phone right now
He is in the CAGE!”

Before I could put down my phone
her irrepressible laugh jumped out of the line
and bit off my ear, splashing blood
all over my face

It then attacked my innocent officemate
I stood by helplessly and watched him
roll about and eventually die
of laughter

I don’t care what the weatherman says
this is a promising morning

here and there
I see piercing birdcalls
making slits
long and short, wide and narrow
on the black sky
to let light in

pulled yourself up by the roots

then violently shook off

the clinging dirt

you who like to travel

let yourself go wandering

and find yourself again and again

in an unaccustomed climate



grasping your hand

I can feel the roots

that crave sunlight and water

climb up my arms

and cling to my heart

******* greedily

the remnant water droplets

from our moist homeland soil

looking silently into each other’s eyes
we find the entrance
to a gallery’s deep corridor

on display are portraits
of our souls
transcendent, beyond desire

The white cat
stretches
and shakes

You little devil
shedding hair
all over the carpet

he won
yet he is not satisfied
all the cheering and hailing came from the living
but few, if any,  from the dead

so he vows to investigate
how many dead people are really dead
and how many living people pretend to be living

Soap operas
of real people and real events
every day
from every corner of the earth
fight ferociously
for a ******
Hollywood
shot

how to dash
in the shortest time
across the great expanse
of the onlookers’ wide open mouths

taking off the clothes
is of course
one of the best ways

no time to worry
about catching cold
or getting caught
in a storm
of morality

stars fly
when he hits his nose
with his own clenched fist

even the rise of such a brilliant sky
can no longer excite him

after struggling with the thunderstorm all afternoon
alone
losing many leaves and suffering several broken limbs
the young tree finds itself still
standing *****

calm and serene
it declares
I am now grown up

then it melts into the woods
and becomes
part of the scenery

bloated by famine in Ethiopia
the stomach must now digest
a TV commercial
of delicious cat food
cholesterol free

I met a little boy at a mountainside
who was quick to laugh and cry
tears had hardly rolled down his cheeks
when a sweet smile bloomed at his mouth

there was nothing purer than his sparkling tears
nothing more beautiful than his angelic face
I understood the intention of the Creator
and was moved by the child’s innocence

I stared at him with a deep feeling
warmth flooded my heart
tears of gratitude welled up in my eyes
when I looked again    he was gone

puzzled by a falling leaf
he quietly put away
his guitar
and pictures of legs
in miniskirts

love it or leave it
what a choice

Every leaf
helps
thicken
the carpet
&
soften
   (
   )
   (
the
   )
   (
fall

Now that she is middle-aged, my wife
likes to stand before the window
and comb her hair

Her only makeup a trace of cloud
the landscape of a graceful
poised maturity

Bitter cold
no flames of war
can warm

Shielding an old man
from the streaming bullets
the dying tree
watches with pity
a dying man
chop down
one of its blackened limbs
stagger
and drag it
into another ash dark night

the water so green
the cloud so white
the sky so blue

no rambling tour guides
no scattered ruins

here
every blade of grass
every blooming flower
every towering tree
is original
and pure

here
nothing is ugly or even unattractive
everywhere is bright and transparent
there's no place to hide

the horizon knows
embracing the sky and sea
is the only way
to broaden itself

the sole reason
for being

open the cage
let the bird
fly

away

give
freedom back
to the
bird
cage

it turns out the moon is just like us
flesh and blood
all coming from Mother's womb
full of pain
and joy

what makes her different
is that every few years
she goes back to the womb
of the Cosmic Mother
to be reborn

after the baptism of blood
billions of years later
she is as bright
as new

twisting & turning
the dwarf
limps away her life
on wire-bound feet

they
put him
in the cage
to hear
his song
of freedom

LOUD
and
CLEAR

Lying back to back on a plate
an orange
and a banana
each dream
its own dream

Cézanne comes over
gives the banana
a half turn
Its graceful inner curve now
embraces the orange’s plumpness

Instantly the air softens
the color fluid
and rich

Chewing the cud
can turn a long-lost spring
green

The older a cow gets
the more it foams
at its mouth

Evening
a desolate street

A car with its windows tightly rolled up
stops for the red lights

Suddenly
in the rear-view mirror
a dark figure
looming
          
Sir, buy ...

The ashen driver
steps in fright on the pedal
and rushes through the red lights
like a rabbit running for its life
          
... buy some flowers
today’s Valentine’s Day

Even steel trembles
So do teeth

Red lights burn in turns
At each icy corner
The eyes don’t
warm

On two feet
with two hands
Pulling down a hat
And tightening the scalp
You greet the wind

Maybe it’s the only way
to pop the dud days of the gone year
like popcorn

yet in lighting a string of firecrackers
hands that survived bullets and shells
still tremble uncontrollably
as if facing a fierce enemy

the higher the window
the smaller
and paler
the face

every time I pass underneath
I always have a funny feeling
something is going to land on my head
a spit
a cigarette ****
a flower ***
or a man
spreading his arms
trying to fly
like a bird

it must be a childhood playmate
calling from outside the window
with a soft low voice
coo coo coo
waking me up early in the morning

a partridge
a dove
a lingering owl
or you
a tired wanderer on the earth
returned to play
hide-and-seek

a pair of birds making love on the branch
shake down an innocent leaf

smack! with the slap of a huge palm
a newborn utters its first cry
while the exhausted moon shuts her eyes
to the sun’s ever reddening face

the intense sunbeam
from your eyes
shines on my thin body
making it even thinner

that’s fine with me
I can claim I possess
the densest shadow
in the world

tucking its tail like a dog
tucking his tail like a dog
tucking its tail like a man
tucking his tail like a man

dog
not a man
not a dog
not a dog not a man

you…

The cloudy sky, turned away
by the sunglasses on the reviewing stand
falls heavily on our faces

The final war has ended
we now march toward the first

One answer
to each call

Happy and content
though the faint voice I hear
is from my worldly self

not from God

the scientists keep warning about

GLOBAL WARMING

the skeptics keep declaring

FAKE NEWS



now I understand why my body

feels warmer and warmer

while my heart

is getting colder and colder

you slow feet that walk step by step

be quiet and move aside



make way for the wheels in fast approach

blowing horns and puffing black smoke

The fish
which jumped out of the water
struggled
and returned to the water

said to

the poet
who jumped in the water
struggled
but failed to return

Your world is indeed not livable

once again

I heard bang bang

bullets shooting out of an assault rifle

rip through innocent young bodies

setting off a series of wailing cries



once again

I heard clink clank of gold coins

dropping into the golden bowls

held by weapon manufacturers, NRA,

politicians and dealers

setting off a series of hearty chuckles