A Dog Poem For Tomorrow (Yan Li)

by Yan Li (tr. by Denis Mair) Tomorrow A dog that only goes wild after death Clamps the world in its jaws and won‘t let go Poems of tomorrow have no answer either Clamping their own sins in their jaws Tomorrow Those dogs who lived long enough in the city Taking along apartment buildings softened by furniture Will charge into the pregnancy of an orchard And clamp jaws on an unborn infant‘s original face Tomorrow Dog teeth will have become piano keys Only bone-crunching music will rate popularity in this world Tomorrow Suffering will still be re-published sheet music So machines in printing plants will be best at singing Ah, tomorrow The home-guarding talents of tomorrow's dogs will be snipped out at hospitals A homeless world with dogs vacationing everywhere Puffs of clouds like dogs will often float by in the sky Some airplane-flying artists Will paint young-women-clouds in the sky Tomorrow‘s dogs tracking June mornings and December afternoons Will still expose their bored tongues But swallow even dirtier things to cut down reproduction Tomorrow‘s dogs make a science of freakishly prolonged life Tomorrow‘s doghouses can be hung any old place like a shirt But tomorrow‘s dog skins will be shed by dogs Tomorrow a dog of an orbital satellite Having shaken off its tail wagged to cinders Will go off into space to be human Ah, tomorrow I too will have such a tomorrow So take advantage of today Before the sky, as wide as the solar system, is chained by a pack of dogs Holding my shadow in my mouth From where sunlight shines From out of lamplight And even from enchanting moonlight I have come out I have come out forever.