Formosan Elegy

for Charles

You have lived six decades and you have lived none

You have loved many and you have loved no one

You wedded three wives but you lie in your cold bed alone

You sired four children but they cannot forgive you

Knock at emptiness a house without your love

Strike the pine box no answer all hollow

You planted plums near the gate but they bear no fruit

You raised herbs in the veranda fresh and savory

I cry for you but no sound wells up in my throat

I sing for you but my tears have dried in my gullet

Walk the old dog give the budgies a cool bath

Cut a tender melon let it bleed into memory

The robe you washed hangs like a carcass flayed

The mug you loved is stained with old coffee

Your toothbrush is silent grease mums your comb

Something's lost something's made strong

Around the corner a new prince yearns to be loved

A fresh turn of phrase a bad strophe erased

A random image crafts itself into a poem

A sleepless Taipei night a mosquito's symphony

Who will cry for you me and your sister Colette

Who will cry for you me and your Algerian sister

You were a rich man but you held on to your poverty

You were a poor man who loved gold over dignity

I sit near your body bag and sing you a last song

I sit near your body bag and chant your final sutra

What's our place on earth? nada nada nada

What's our destiny? war grief maggots nada

Arms cheeks cock femur eyelids nada

Cowl ox lamb vellum marrow nada

Vulva nada semen nada ovum nada

Eternity nada heaven nada void nada

Birth and death the same blackened womb

Birth and death the same white body bag

Detach detach we enter the world alone

Detach detach we leave the world bone lonely

If we can't believe in god we must believe in love

We must believe in love we must believe in love

And they zip you up in your white body bag

White body bag white white body bag

Source: Hard Love Province (W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 2014)