photograph by Philippe Orsetti 2009
the poet's porous poems
painted on Beijing cement
soon dry and disappear
calligraphy of ink
and water lasts
only as long
as the sun
allows
or a passing
pedestrian remembers
ultimately both fade
as the liquid dries
hànzì like all entities
is translucent
transparent and transitory
so it is
that we measure
being and its entities
by evaporation
and shiny stain
