poems that dwell death

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Alareer posted poem that preludes his death

The Reader_190529_Death Poems

Program Introduction

Poems that dwell death

The Reader got hold of a young Guangzhou poet Lin Shu’s small poetry collection earlier this year. The poem “For” rings resurrections of “Train Spotting” beats. But Lin must be a collector of grievances, and deaths too. The long verse almost resembles a log-book of injustice and tragedies in CCP occupied China. The English translation of the poem is featured in this episode. The second poem is even more karmic and destitute. Palestine poet Refaat Alareer posted “If I must die” on the internet 5 weeks before he was killed by a bombing raid, killing him and his families. An open call was made for people in other countries to translate the poem and have them collected in a solidarity. It is featured here read by Lenny, with respect and joining the canon. The last poem “I swallowed a metal moon” was written by another young poet in Guangzhou. Xu Liji was a worker on the assembly line for Foxconn in Shenzhen. He jumped to his death from his factory dorm. His poems were found in his relics left. His colleague posted Xu works for the public. The poem is translated and read here. Through the eyes of death, we see life and light in reflect.

FOR

by Lin shu

translated by Lenny

for you

for me

for mama who has brutalized perpetually by papa

for gays

for homosexuals

for tranny who’d be killed when going to the restroom

for a village woman with a chain on her neck and the disappeared Wuyi

for a Chinese socialist characteristic divorce cool-off period

for our monthly menstrual blood that should break the dictator’s sick sausage

for the fatherland and all the women who had no such land

for having food

for getting medicines

for children who’d begotten diabetes through vaccinations

for mines that collapsed and pneumoconiosis on the run

for the lack of oxygen becoming his perpetual ordeal

for demolitions of low-end population and thugs violence’s jury

for bridges, gun-smoke, banners and lightenings

for Victoria and Potala

for revolution and counter-revolution

for Shanghai in April and Cheng Zhou in November

for lockdowns of non-local residents with no antidepressant

for the mother being demoralized whose single-child had died from pandemic

for the child who’s three years of life was occupied by the pandemic

for the middle class family of four dead by the pandemic in just two weeks

their remaining child left desolated overseas

for delivery men living on the streets

for environmental cleaners died from high temperature

for drivers sentenced to 4 years for forged iteneries

for an iron nail standing atop the Foxconn rooftop

for the middle-aged man crying with his head sticking out of the iron bars

in the urban village for he could not provide for his family

for the market economy common wealth could not save the grand unemployment rate

for writing

for truth

for political poetry

for the constitution and the charter

for praying mantis that block the tanks

for foreign powers’ exile in nativity

for civilians must reclaim civil rights

for mother-language no longer needs translation

for hunger strikes

for tortures

for mentality and dementalization

for rag-dolls and empty chairs

for the shitty Political Bureau of the National People's Congress

kneeling to the emperor

for the leader who serves the people and people in concentration camps

for the reporter being continuously trialed for 5 months suffered her menopause

convicted for speech with her subject of auditory hallucinations

for knowing her first love, a middle school teacher who died in the square,

she gets drunk and weeps on the anniversary

for the shuttle buses

for the trains

for the residential buildings

for 44 Uyghurs turned into ashes in 3 hours

for Urumqi burned to death

for Urumqi burned to death for Urumqi Middle Road

for the news of the burned deaths burned the press conference that control your mind

for the flag rising as usual upon the dead

for the slaves uprising unwilling to be slaves

for the omnipresence depression of politics from the burned 

for going on the streets shouting, reciting and chorus in silence

demonstrating things not yet burned to death

for raising white papers as if raising the self

for no amnesty for massacre

for blood is not fire

for fire is no blood

for rememberance

for being alive

for being alive

for rememberance

for me

for you

for me being me

for me being you

May 2023

If I must die

Refaat Alareer

If I must die,

you must live

to tell my story

to sell my things

to buy a piece of cloth

and some strings,

(make it white with a long tail)

so that a child, somewhere in Gaza 

while looking heaven in the eye 

awaiting his dad who left in a blaze– 

and bid no one farewell

not even to his flesh

not even to himself–

sees the kite, my kite you made, 

flying up above and thinks for a moment 

an angel is there bringing back love

If I must die

let it bring hope

let it be a tale

I swallowed a metal moon

Xu liji

English translation by Lenny

I swallowed a metal moon

they called it a screw

I swallowed the fluid waste of IT industry, the order to lost jobs;

the youthful years,

when you are not even as tall as the

machines were gone

I swallowed the rambling and tumbling I swallowed the homelessness

I swallowed the passenger fly-overs

I swallowed a life full of moisten rust

I can't swallow anymore I can't

swallow anymore

So all that I had swallowed is rushing out of my throat

Onto this fatherland

It floored as a

Poem of shame