Two Four-Beat Futures for the Shang Dynasty

[fuckatherine]

貞:今日,其雨?
Today, will it rain?

RAIN

Chickens indoors

lest they deal with

wet feathers. No

damp birds-clothes. But

the cows can stay. 

Hurry—from the

west I see the 

Clouds. From the west 

I see bruise bloom. 

Red hour. From the

West. From the west. 

From the west

SUN

Close the shutters

at noon. Clay rich

contractions slow

sneak in the yard.

The cows must stay.

Heat jams all in

My lungs. No room

For air. Mid-day

fever is short—

still savage. No

room for air. Or 

Much. Or cows

 

 

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Coding: I made buttons that somewhat function! Skill and execution are always ramping graphs in pursuit of one another and I know my coding skills are lagging significantly behind but I'm proud of this one. I think it does what it needs to do...? I really want to improve, though. I could make really fun stuff to uhhhh self aggrandize my poetry even further hahaha!

Writing: Took inspiration from Anne Carson's Red Fragments and the structure of Sandra Cisneros' I am So Depressed I Feel Like Jumping in the River Behind My House but Won't Because I'm Thirty Eight and Not Eighteen.

Okay this question is taken from an oracle bone fragment inscribed with 甲骨文, or oracle bone script, which is kind of a proto-Chinese writing form from the Shang Dynasty. Shang Dynasty poetry is characterized by its short and straightforward nature. These poems are a sort of call-and-response from a couple thousand years later to whomever was wondering. Thought about my grandfather, my mother as child, the village (as always and as is typical for me). I was really drawn to the four letter phrase and how its numerical syntax remained constant in its translation into English, so I wanted to write my poems in this same four syllable rhythms—hence the title. I left the last phrases of both as three syllables—unfinished thoughts, open ended? I also wanted some things to be somewhat constant, thus the cows remain outside. 

When I visited China almost a decade ago those cows were always outside. No leashes or ropes, though. I guess there wasn't really anywhere else to go. 

Still deciding whether to call it "Two" or "Twin" future...that difference matters!