(Chinese poet, philosopher 210-63 AD)

Alone upon a mountain stands
a tree with ten suns in its branches.
Ten suns for ten fallen men,
blood-wine pools soaking a parched earth,
10,000 miseries racking our land,
100,000 ways to crucify lives,
lamentations and shadows sashay across their graves,
gongs and drums wake everyone but the dead.

Just one more day, one more dusk.
just another dusk and one more dawn.
Inside a vellum hallow ten golden suns capsize.
With out-stretched palms
we catch the rays,
and adorn our bodies with its light.

– Laila Wah
03/22/2021 copyright