Wǔxíng Category: Earth (土)
3-xx
White fur brushes against the high spring grass,
nine plumes swaying like silk fans in the wind.
A scholar sits where the mountain stream slows,
his hands steady, tending a small flame for tea.
The fox approaches with a step light as fallen petals,
her human skin a pale porcelain in the dawning light.
He does not startle at the rustle of the thicket,
nor does he look up from the ceramic cup he holds.
The air is still, holding the scent of pine and old ink.
The weight of a thousand winters begins to dissolve,
for in his presence, the many layers are finally still.
I have sought this mountain through a hundred lives,
wearing the faces of beggars, queens, and clever beasts.
He is the Dào, his storm now irrelevant; a whisper,
a soul so ancient it remembers the cooling of the stars.
I watch his fingers, calloused by the earth and the seasons,
knowing they hold the gentleness of a thousand lifetimes.
In his silence, I find the courage to finally become undone.
He reaches out, a slow movement like the turning tide,
His palm came to rest against her shifting cheek.
The nine tails fanning out behind her begin to glow,
turning from the white of snow to a blinding, celestial silver.
From his robe, he draws an orb of Pale Jade, polished and cold,
placing the luminous stone into her trembling hand.
The fox’s narrow eyes widen into the golden orbs of a dragon,
as the shimmer of divine scales begins to crest like a wave.
The man remains anchored, his breath rhythmic and deep.
The illusion of the wild creature falls at a single touch,
shattered by a voice that carries the resonance of the earth.
"I know you," he whispers, a truth older than the mountains,
offering the jade where my own spirit is carved in the grain.
He does not fear the thunder or the coil of the celestial form,
for he has found the song within the stone and called it home.
Every mask I wore was but a different name for the same heart,
and in his eyes, I am not a monster or a goddess, but the truth -
This is our recognition beyond the veil.
刘嘉文
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