OLD THINGS By Wang Erdong

OLD THINGS

By Wang Erdong

All have become relics since you’re gone.

Some clothes were never worn, now reduced to ashes.

Food not eaten was offered to ancestors with incense.

Your new grave sits on the old earth

where you used to kneel and refuse to leave.

It’s your bed now.

You may be waiting for reincarnation,

but I don’t believe in meeting in the afterlife.

In any case we won’t recognize each other.

You have become a relic of eternity.

The wind will blow away the dust collected on the window sills

while you stood there dreaming of liberty.

The window frames were painted red over and over,

but peeling will accelerate with time.

After you left, I have decided

not to love love’s past.

About the poet:

Wang Erdong, male, whose original name is Wang Dong, was born in October 1990. He is a member of the Shandong Writers Association.

His works have been scattered in literary periodicals such as Poetry Periodical, Cao Tang, Young Writers, Works and West, and have been included in various poetry anthologies. He has won awards including the 3rd China Red Sorghum Poetry Award, the 30th Cherry Blossom Poetry Award, and the 1st Youth Literature Award (of Shandong Province). He participated in the "2013 China • Stars College Student Poetry Summer Camp".