Colors Of Loneliness Poem by Chen-ou Liu

A Haiku Sequence

a corridor that runs
off into infinity
'Mom! I'm coming home'

Moon Festival...
the attic and I share
a day of rest

running away
from myself and my shadow
the smell of formalin

grief knocks
the wind out of me
drifting snowflakes

New Year's dinner for one
I pick up the chopsticks
and yet … and yet …


Notes:

1 The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival in the West, is a popular harvest festival celebrated by the Chinese people, and it is held on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese calendar, during a full moon.

2'formalin: a clear solution of formaldehyde in water. A 37% solution is used for fixing and preserving biologic specimens for pathologic and histologic examination.'