When the Moon Rides the Tides of Time
Eric Chengyang 墨月橙阳
On the day of the eclipse,
I awoke.
In the sand of Dunhuang
left untouched by Stein,
I followed the clues given
by three jogging rabbits,
and found a piece of your name.
Heading eastward,
I turned over every grain of sand,
searched underneath each rubble of concrete,
and pieced together your name
from Last to First,
from the desert oasis
to the deserted ocean
In the reflection of the full moon,
with every droplet
gifted by the waves
carried by the wind,
I wrote an invitation
as a love poem.
Then, I torn it up
line by line,
word by word,
stroke by stroke,
and scattered towards the Celestial River above.
Glittering against
the backdrop of a starry sky,
lit by the iridescent hue
of the lunar corona, I,
turned my eyes away from the reciting tides,
turned my ears away from the chanting mountains,
turned my mind away from the luring leaves,
and backed away in the direction
of the clinking silence preceding
the next grand banquet.