justice
you ask
where is it
as if it were
in hiding
in some corner
under the bed
around the block
behind that tree
you look confused
in your pain
you who believe
in a moral code
find it lacking
in others
not in another life
you say
but here now
let there be
justice
to whom though
can you plea
when the world
the heavens
don’t hear
and justice
is not blind
just nonexistent
a foreign concept
in an alien land
injustice
Declaration: for the martyr Yu Luoke by Bei Dao
Perhaps the last moment is here
I haven’t left a will
Only a pen. . .to my mother
I’m not a hero
In an era without heroes
I just wanted to be a man
The quiet horizon
Separated the ranks of the living from the dead
I had to choose the sky
And would never kneel on the ground
To let executioners look gigantic
So they could block the wind of freedom
Out of starlike bullet holes
A bloody dawn is flowing
from the book The Red Azalea
translated by Fang Dai, Dennis Ding, & Edward Morin
for martyrs everywhere
Leonard Durso 