Brutal Hot Summer Poem by Shaojun Li

The accumulated dried leaves send off burning breath
Flock together, cram, and save up day by day
At last become a gigantic tinderbox that would explode with a single spark
A loud crashing sound, debris everywhere, smoke billowing

And anger forms just like that
Little things trigger, one after another, as if the lead wire
The toxic resentment, gradually builds up and intensifies over time
All of a sudden explodes like fire, shooting out

In the brutal heat all things suffocate, hot humid depressed earth
Need a storm to flush and drain
Heaven responded with a stampede of hail
O the foreign objects like stones fallen from the sky
No one could avoid, no one could be spared from the disaster
A little ant's head was smashed broken right after birth


(translated by Shelley Kristina Hu)