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Sound and Scene
after Chen Dongdong
What’s that thing that’s propped up by its own noise?A no-brainer. A brainless thing balancesatop its own noise.
What’s on its mind?A wasteland. In its skullthere’s only waste.
What does it hear? What does it see?It’s waiting for orders. It can’t hear or see anything else.
Why is it on the street?It’s looking for something to eat, its appetite largerthan that of ten rhinoceroses.
Why can’t we see its mouth?It doesn’t eat with a mouth. It eats with the deviceson the sides of its belly.
What if it lurches forward and catches us?Go ask Kafka. Be sure to ask Kafka.
2019.6.16 [End Page 185]
Song Lin was born in Fujian in 1959. He graduated from East China Normal University in 1983, where he taught until he was jailed for nine months for his participation in the 1989 student demonstrations in Shanghai. He moved to France in 1991. The poetry editor of Bei Dao’s journal Today since 1992, he now lives in Dali, Yunnan province.
