In another life
|
You and I worked West Virginia coal mines
|
Side by side
|
Collecting the black dust like sin
|
The day the main shaft caved in
|
I caught your eye
|
As the lantern light guttered out
|
And the afterdamp swallowed us slowly
|
I gripped your hand
|
And caught a glance
|
Of the next time 'round
|
|
In another life
|
You and I were Red Guards in training
|
Side by side
|
We marched on Tiananmen
|
Turned our own parents in
|
For hoarding rice
|
And in the Great Leap forward
|
We crawled on our bellies and died
|
A blood orange sky
|
Gave a cry
|
Of next time 'round
|
|
In another life
|
I was married at thirteen
|
You were killed at twenty-one
|
On a minor battlefield
|
I was buried beside my second stillborn child
|
My last thought it seemed
|
A fever dream
|
|
Now we sink into a summer afternoon
|
Central Park in June
|
Marveling at the bounty our days contain
|
And we feel it like the shiver
|
Of a passing train
|
That other life
|
Deep underground
|
You and I
|
Side by side
|
We are the next time 'round
|
|
-----------------
|
In Another Life
|
Vienna Teng |