【To Lyrical Gossipers】
By Tian Yu Zhi
You have been naughty and busy lately
Stick your nose into other people's pants
Sniffing around
You rack your brains, arranging
level and oblique tones for harmony
Searching for antithetical couplets, and staled allusions
Paint other people's emotions with fake colors of
Showy, borrowed words, drawn only out of
Scant imagination and shallow observation
No matter how hard you have tried, nevertheless
They are still a low lifer's alley gossips in lyrical forms
With no heart, soul, or compassion
Maybe start from today, look very hard around yourself
See if you could find anything beautiful
In your own pathetic, unhappy life, and write about it, e.g.
That plate of pork tongues you love to chew on weekends
2021.9.7