Dairy of a Believer
Zhou Mengdie

Yesterdays—
yesterdays soaked through,
drenched in the shades
of Hamlet and Rudin!
Begone, begone!
My parting gift to you’s a begging bowl
of nice cold compassion.

I’m the metamorphosis
of camel and sand.
Naked I lie on the back of loneliness,
letting myself be carried
on that endless distance, measureless height,

letting the sound of my footfalls
silently open in black blossoms
blooming on my chest.

Black blossoms stalking me
in smiling gloom,
the future luring me
with a blank sheet of mystery;
the blank sheet is endless,
my gloom is endless too….

It’s dark! Death pours me a glass
of grape wine. In the crazy, wide-awake eyes
of Omar Khayyam, I see the Eternal reflected,
and hidden behind the Eternal
my name.