by Yu Yoyo
     trs. by Sophia Kidd

objects outside the window are swollen
shadows form by natural light
just like a prop
holds up a theatre with no roof

we sit on the balcony and wait
for new actors to appear
just waiting for a car
circling the turntable
two leaves hijack
a piece of wind gone by
sheets dry on the rooftop
giving back the afternoon sun
but only in summer
when the angle’s right
i guessed wrong
about the light
this season

people in the room squint
between glass and air
watching an unknown actor
in a play for unknown reasons
and quickly they blend
into the plot

by Yu Yoyo
     trs. by Sophia Kidd

tongue’s still not free
I sit and wait

wait for it to awake   rebel
wait for a gurgle of water
it will be a sick sentence

expecting to be heard
then disappear

because the tongue is moist   lazy
opaque
it cannot discern truth

I will analyse failure
war spreads by air
silent fatal wound

brutality bred in a petri dish
emotional alternation
bacterial proliferation
tongue completes the experiment

since having someone to beat
there are footprints back and forth
dressing is imprisonment, undressing
is a cage within a cage

since having someone to beat I found my tongue
one more useless thing in the world
flog   shoot cannons   death by dismemberment

it’s better to stir-fry
and feed the hungry

it’s not hard to eat people
our stomach is drippin
with sulphuric acid

how many disasters have been digested
let’s digest another ‘why’

tongue is getting stiffer
trapped in the mouth and ornamental
in the process of ossifying
borrowing the appearance of amber
and the timidity of insects

by Yu Yoyo
     trs. by Sophia Kidd

she uses the fear in her heart
to make a horse
then dissolves it
a horseshoe in vapors
no need to tell the complete story
just gallop

the root of the tongue is made into a rein
dragging a liter
of quiet oral secretions
these also act upon
the horse’s life and power

she rides the horse bravely
shuttling through lightning
and back into her heart

laugh and then cry   laugh and then cry
her horse
split into
positive and negative

by Wu Xiangyang
     trs. by Fan Jinghua

I had once recited your body,
And therefore you’ll exist in my recitation,
The same as the wind buoys up the leaves,
And they exist in the wind.

Breasts exist in fondle,
Teeth exist in chewing,
And a lake will not exist if it’s never
Been put into a cup.

Chengdu does not exist,
If it has not been laid down
In the carefully folded
Rains.