ON THE FIELD OF GRAIN HAI ZI: Come on wheat field, at noon, watching horses red and white

MOZART SAYS IN REQUIEM – by Hai Zi

“Women whom I can see

women in the water

please pick up my bones

in the wheat field

bones like a bouquet of catkins

and bring them home in a violin box.

Women whom I can see

clean women

women on the river

please reach into the wheat field.

When I am without hope

riding home on a bundle of wheat

please pick up my scattered bones

put them in the little maroon chest, and bring it home

like your rich dowry.”

LET ME REST MY FEET ON A CARPENTER’S TOOLBOX AT – by Hai Zi

“I sit at noon, pale as a bird in water

pale as an indoor carpenter

While I’m nailing a cross

on the door in my hometown

a bird on the opposite roof

is dying of age

Who says, in quiet water, I met this aged bird

Let me rest my feet in the stable

If not for bad timing

I’d remember I came from a better place

Let me rest my feet on a carpenter’s toolbox at twilight

or let my feet grow into white wood in the carpenter’s home

As a pigeon or the bird in water flies across my fiancée’s belly

the carpenter saws me open, turns me

into his son’s cradle.”

UNFORTUNATE – by Hai Zi

“Days in April the best days

Days in October the best days

even better than April

They are two horses pulling a cart

pulling me toward a hospital bed

and unfortunate sickness

A green cliff falls into a shepherd’s arms

Two horses

fly over the mountain

Two horses

one white and one red

snow cumulus and maple leaves

are like two sisters

are like flowers

of two sicknesses.”