I wait for the bathroom light to turn on.
The window leaks and winter blows in.
I step forward to reach for the slanting moonlight.
It was said to shine from the north only at the beginning of February.
My foot is about to step on it, but the light snaps on and engulfs everything.

Your hair shined under the clear Pori sky like sparkling waves.
You licked up the dripping ice cream, hanging like berries on branches.
“My dream is to move to Beijing,” you said, kissing my cheek.
“I like Asian people,” you stared at me. “And they like me.”
My face boiled under your mark on my cold skin.

Early I wake up to catch the flight.
Find the time to make the bed, so mom can remember who I am.
And everything will be covered up with sand anyway.
My family waves me goodbye: new work and a bright future.
I try to say something, but hold it back.

—————————————

We burst into laughing when we see the single bed.
Hundreds of jokes I can think about that, before you push me down and cover my world with everything you have.
“Chocolate, you have?” I feel your heart beating on my back.
We bite one in half, red cognac trickling down our lips and faces.
I still can’t describe your beauty, when moonlight peaks through the window panes, projecting a dragon on your sleeping face.

Jade-like water. Bending willows. Under the grey sky,
I paint a landscape with you in it, standing like a statue at a time of history.
“That’s the Great Wall over there,” you said. “I’ve been there once.”
I tell you about the story of a woman shattering the wall with sadness over her dead husband.
We walk over there, holding hands in the hustle of thousands of people.

“We should meet again this year,” you said honestly.
“Baltic Sea is my destination,” I replied, also in earnest.
I’ve considered settling wherever you are, and finding a job even in a place where sandstorms and batons struck.
But you’re always a wayfarer, having deep down the desire to go back home, I bet,
To the monotonous yet tranquil place you and I first met.

I bet you’ll go back.

River on Baltic Sea Website

• 藍芽之復尋
• 樹檸檬
• Robson
• Only and Nothing
• Bora and Shui