Shadow Actress

When did you decide to reclaim me with blades?

When did your heart become twice as heavy,

Under the absence of a shade? How did you transform

All the soft lips, inky stars, seething heart

Into leather scars? What did you crave

Out of the sky, on those night when I’m not home?

What is your secret displayed

On translucent screen? What is the world

You seek comfort from? How did my light

Tell the endless story? When did I wound myself

To become a silent fairytale? Where is our fallen drum,

Your silent beat, my operatic weeping?

Where is the beam of truth? Why did I

Disappear? When shall I enter the stage?

How will my tears applause, my body bows

When my audience forget my name?

It is believed that Chinese shadow puppetry was invented because Emperor Han Wudi was too sad after his wife Madam Li had died; the shadow puppet made him to see his wife “coming back to life” again.

2022.7.13