FILLING IN THE BLANKS – Poetry, by Chen Guiliang

FILLING IN THE BLANKS

Heaven, you see, is blank, so blank, such a vast blank, I wonder what it takes to fill it. It reminds me of Death, and the way it is registered on a clan’s genealogy. Each entry requires a person to give up his life. On a spring afternoon, my father suddenly passed away, filling a generation’s blank space. I know more kinsmen, will fill up the remaining blanks. It won’t take long, before I replace these people, to become a husband, a father, giving my love unconditionally, and know there will be another who will do as I do: fill in, fill in.

(Chen Guiliang)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/21st-Century-Chinese-Poetry-No/dp/1939426944