A Poetry Found in the Chest of A Dead Soldier
If I keep your poetry, / And I'm killed, / Will I be buried with it?
I flip through the blood-stained brochure
While they dig your grave
Should I bury you with your poems
Or keep them for your prospective readers?
Did you write them for someone?
If I keep your poetry,
And I'm killed,
Will I be buried with it?
He who was living is now dead,
We who were living are now dying.
Should I add my poems on the blank pages,
So the proof of our ever-being living
Will be relayed?
Will I be buried with our poetry,
Or will our poetry be kept and passed on
With a little empathy?
C.J. Anderson-Wu is a Taiwanese writer. In 2017 she published Impossible to Swallow—A Collection of Short Stories About The White Terror in Taiwan and in 2021 The Surveillance—Tales of White Terror in Taiwan. Based on true characters and real incidents, her works look into the political oppression and the traumas resulting from the state’s brutal violation of human rights. Currently she is working on her third book Endangered Youth— To Hong Kong. C.J. Anderson-Wu's stories and poems can be found in the Global Anthologies of Short Stories (US), Eastlit (Southeast Asia), Lunaris Review (Nigeria), Strands Lit Magazine (India), Short Story Avenue (US), Olney Magazine (US), So Fi Zine (Australia), An Capall Dorcha/The Dark House (Ireland), Short Story Town (US), Hennepin Review (US), MockingOwl Roost (US), Kitaab (Singapore & India), LEO Literary Journal (US), Bazinega (India), Main Squeeze Literary Journal (US), Confetti Westchester Writers Workshop Magazine (US), Story Sanctum (US), Edged Humanity (US), The Bezine (Israel), Flash Fiction North (UK) and e-ratio (US), among other literature journals.
