When I cannot fall asleep,
I undress
one piece after another.
It's just a few pieces:
a nightdress,
a corset
and a tiny pale-white brief.
Soon nothing left.
Yet if I cannot melt myself
with such darkness,
I bend my body
like being in the womb.
Unexpectedly I sob.
I am now so skilled in crying,
which I did not learn
before I was born.
About the author:
Yi Mi Yi is the author of the poetry anthologies No Place to Place and 100 Poems by Yi Mi Yi. Her works appear in major Chinese literature magazines Changjiang Literature, Poetry Periodical, Chinese Poetry and Poetry Dynasty, etc.