This is a poem by Chen Du.
Walls here can’t grow
Even the humblest blooms
Are indifferently cold
Separating us from the rainbow
And the miraculous theatre
Of nature
They dress in all designs
Out of the minds
That have endeavored to iconize
Beauty, but only to exclude us
From the truly
Natural
We climb the walls
One after another
Only to see more
Flat and square
Like scars on the cheeks
Of the universe
They part us alive
Confine us dead
Seemingly shelter us tight
But actually isolate us who are alike
They restrict our sight
And even the willing might
They live in our heart
Hide in our blood
Cripple our feet
Blur our vision
Harden our tongues
And lengthen our distance
We hope by building walls
We could become stronger
But only to uncover
How tiny ‘n weak we are
Within those walls
Built inside us
In a world full of walls
Both within ‘n without
The visible and invisible
Beings and selves
Either truthful or imaginative
With no one able to tell
So that we can never
Step out of the walls
Nor dissect them
Nor destroy them
Nor forget about them
‘Cause we have become, walls
Chen Du is a Voting Member of American Translators Association and a member of the Translators Association of China with a Master’s Degree in Biophysics from Roswell Park Cancer Institute, the State University of New York at Buffalo and a Master’s Degree in Radio Physics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She revised more than eight chapters of the Chinese translation of the biography of Helen Snow, Helen Foster Snow – An American Woman in Revolutionary China. In the United States, her translations have appeared in Lunch Ticket, The Bare Life Review and River River. Her essay was published by The Dead Mule and Hamline University English Department, her poem has appeared in Levitate and her poetry was published by The Dead Mule online. She is also the author of the book Successful Personal Statements. Find her online at ofsea.com.
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