It is time for dawn’s bell to ring out
It is time for dead souls to rise out of the abyss
It is time for the seasons to blink
It is time for flowers to bloom flowers to fall and spit out the pits of fruit
It is time for the spiderwebs to reconstruct logic
It is time to shoot down the old memories
It is time for the executioner to crave an empty bed
It is time for starlight to connect the living and the dead
It is time for women to smile sweetly in advertisements
It is time for the banks’ tigers to come out of their cages
It is time for stone statues to walk forth
It is time for the steam whistle to shriek and upend the sky
It is time for the Age of Anonymity
It is time for poetry to disclose the will of heaven
It is time
Copyright © 2024, Jeffrey Yang, translated from the Chinese written by Bei Dao, Sidetracks, New Directions Publishing
from Sidetracks (I)
the Chinese written by Bei Dao