Resined arm of chair leaves grease on fingers. Orange oil smell makes a fist inside of stomach the size of navel orange. Glass of water. Faucet comes out orange.
The hedge has been sheared so much it is no longer a hedge. Bald twigs large shaking brainstem. It began to talk, the bald brainstem, my grandfather.
樹木倒在了周圍 меня — до only I остался 我必須站起來, 變成一棵樹. Я падаю. Слышишь, как трещит мой позвоночник? 你 you have to становиться tree 為我.
[The trees have fallen around me—only I remained. I rose and became tree. Now I fall. Hear my spine cracking? You—you must become a tree for me.]
He often talked war. He talked about it like it was a parade.
Они раздулись, как воздушные шары. Поп! 消失了，只留下一些橡膠皮 泥地.
[They swelled up balloons. Disappeared. Left only little rubber skins on mud.]
Mom made me perform for him. Songs I learned in school. Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset. Arching my arms into a ring above my head, fingertips touch fingertips on tiptoe. Sunrise. Then drop arms parallel with shoulders and down to my pelvis, fingertips touch fingertips, feet flat on carpet. Sunset.
I realize only now that my head was supposed to be the sun.
The sun may as well have risen and set a thousand times. The curtains were permanently closed and the lamp by the door permanently on. Neither day or night.
Green carnations last longer without contact with the sun.
Это та маленькая девочка, которую я носила на руках?
這是在玩耍的小男孩嗎？
I don’t remember growing older.
[Is this the little girl I carried? Is this the little boy at play? I don't remember growing older.]