Step by step, I keep on walking
As if being chased by something
With no definite form

Each road is a new start
With the inevitable forking paths
Stopping in desolate trails once in a while
Lonely, remote villages
Having lost most of its dwellers
Become nothing but decrepit houses
Among small lanes where mothers sing lullabies

Visible or invisible lives
Are miracles of the species
In flowers' fragrance and beauty
Hides the Makers' secrets
All lives have languages
Different audio frequencies
Different singing voices
Incomprehensible for humans to partake

Slowing entering the besieged fortress of the city
Adobes nesting high up in the sky
Streets where shadows rule the night
Fantasized dream of the Tower of Babylon
Climbing up the dilapidated stairway to heaven
Reaching out, yearning to touch the firmament
Alas, the constellations hide somewhere farther away
The feet refuse to step on the naked earth

An ocean comes into view
Boundless waves, turbulent and surging
Above which float beautiful young bodies
Mysterious water body of life
Shadowland full of hideaways and guises
Impenetrable even by the sunken sun

River water of the four seasons flows past through me
Showcasing sceneries along the road
Appearing and disappearing
I pick a blossoming flower
And gift it to the person close to me

Misfortune leads us to men in uniforms
Barricades, caltrops, shields
People advance in waves, songs bursting out their throats
Squeezing, pushing forward
Many fall
Blood clots under the moonlight
Coagulate into sad and angry faces
Erecting stone tablets of memories

People greet each other
Appearance is the magic of the trickster
Some liars make up touching stories
Some murderers mouth off about decency
Honest ones don't talk much
Sincere friends are better than siblings

Some meet phantoms from far away
Some stand up to fight
Some usher in destiny
Some flee hurriedly
The survivors bear witness
Sobbing in the grand river of history

Having escaped from the cages, parrots and canaries
Slowly get used to the free sky
Making nests in the branches they like
Passing on their stories to the fledglings

I keep on marching alongside the others
The road behind us becomes mist
Only the present remains real
The current reality
The age we all live in
The totem since birth
Describes an image of prayer

Along the way, we give birth to children
In turn, they give birth to grandchildren
Playing life's melodies together
Folk or classical
Rap or rock n' roll
Singing to the heartbeat of one another
Creating pure and beautiful sprays

People come from every direction
Reach the highest mountaintop
Together, they wait and watch
For the new dawn falling on planet Earth

—Published in Issue 350, Li Poetry Magazine, August 2022