ALDWIN LI
May 35th
1. The fourth of June, the anniversary of the 1989 █████ Square crackdown.
You fear us who come from that kingdom where air is forbidden. Do you wonder why we are silent? Why we do not name our dead? Maybe you have not spoken names and choked on ash; everything is flammable in the courts of kings. We too once cradled candles for them, who stood before tanks in squares we could still name, where we still thought warmth could move the shadows of kings. But fire when ignored went feral through crowds smashed on batons snapped bones split tears spasmed unhoused eyes shrieking as king’s men sucked prayers from lungs until there was no air to light candles in dreams – that kingdom cured dreams, crushed names and ground bones into pills for fever. But there is no swallowing for us. Can you teach us how? We who have held our tongues in our throats until they hardened like wax, swollen with crowds who could once be named, were once louder than prayer, were once brighter than gunfire until gunfire unmade them as our last candles, mauled, melting? This is why we fear fire. This is why we will not name the dead! But can’t you unlearn that, you ask, in a kingdom with air? – Do you think that once you know a name can set fire to your home, you can unknow fear?
☲
You ███████████ king██████████████ you wonder ████████ Why ██████ our dead █████ have ██ spoken ████████████████████████████████ We ████ cradle███████ them █████████████████████████ where we still ████ warm████████ shadows ██████████ ignore█████████████████████ snapped bones ██████████ unhoused ████████████████ prayers █████████████████ light █████ dreams – █████████ dream█████ names ███████ into █████ fever ███████ ██████████ you ███████ who have ████████████████████ hardened ██████████ crowds ████████████████████ pray██████████████████ gunfire unmade ███ our ███████████████████ fear ███████ we will ███████████████ unlearn ████████ kingdom ████ – ███████████████ name ████ fire ██our home █████████
☲
███████ our dead ████ cradle ██ where █
still warm ████ bones █house█████ fever ████ pray
████████ we will un████████fire ██ home
This poem was written as a ‘burning haibun’, a form created and detailed here by torrin a. greathouse.
Aldwin Li is an English literature student, a sometime translator, and a sharer of words. His work appears on the Young Poets’ Network and the Incandescent Review. Find him on Twitter and Instagram at @al_dwinley.