Valley Poem by Yang Lian

Arriving at darkness we see light at the foot of the valley Rocks stretching into the distance like the sky Suddenly snap like a shaky ladder Timid fingers bending to violent stars weep Turning us into cripples Deceiving our eyes When light turns into living things we are dead Microscopic wriggling bodies of flesh Bore holes into us glow Moon like a person falling spread-eagled City lying on a bed lush with wrong perceptions Reading a morbid book front cover the sea Back cover the sound of hoofs treading in muddy water Traps always sensed when right underfoot Only when distance vanishes do we touch the red flowing stream And use the wrinkles on rocks to display all the fears of the past