周阳春 / Zhou Yangchun Poem by Zheng Xiaoqiong

In the world of her dreams she stands at the ferry
without boats or before she can finish the exam
time is up Most times are defective products bleakness and emptiness
In the mountains at midnight she is left alone no one to turn to for help
She describes to me these scenes when she screams in her dreams Lamp light
brightens her face after her screaming relaxed and open
without the sinking silence or daytime tension In her dreams
she finds vast desolate wilderness she has to cry out she's frightened
she screams … then wakes up to face in a crowded dorm of
twelve her bewildered co-workers
She apologizes to them saying in her body
hides a demon who curls up quietly during the day
but tortures her at night Her body is not used to
Twelve hours of labor at the electronics factory Fatigue
has become her only word of expression On the assembly line
her body is stiff and clumsy her joints ache
her fingers are heavy like machines In her back
legs waist she has lost control of the indescribable pain
pressing her body like a rock She must release from
her body an open field to allow herself to shout a beast
running out of her sleep This 17-year-old girl from Hunan
screams as if a boulder oppresses her In her sleep
her screams buried deep in her blood burst out
shaking the whole dorm Between her breathing and screams
I insomniac feel the oppression wrapped in the body
of a silent female migrant worker Her screams pierce
this hasty industrial age like a shout of protest
or the hidden moving matter in her veins
We still complain about how her screams broke our
beautiful dreams and her innocent body and lost gaze
Her screams in her dreams are this industrial epoch's slow
hidden pains accumulating and exploding