Читать книгу The Glass Constellation - Arthur Sze - Страница 20

An aunt has developed carpal tunnel syndrome

from using a pipette. During the Cultural Revolution,

she was tortured with sleep deprivation. Some

of the connections in her memory dissolved

into gaps. “My mind has leaps now,” she says,

as she reaches for bean threads in a boiling pot.

Her son recollects people lined up to buy

slices of cancerous tripe. “If you boil it,

it’s edible,” he says. And a couple who ate

a destroying angel testified it was delicious—

they had not intended to become love suicides.

What are the points of transformation in a life?

You choose three green Qianlong coins and throw

Corners of the Mouth, with no changing lines.

You see red and green seaweed washing onto

smooth black stones along a rocky shoreline,

sense the moment when gravity overtakes light

and the cosmos stops expanding and begins to contract.