Lit eZine Vol 6 | p-7 | POETRY | Ward

POEM

WARD
by C. J. Anderson-Wu

Thoughts escaping the mind — *Image by* *GrumpyBeere*

Should I confine my thoughts to spare others from being hurt?
Yet they dash beyond my rein.
I am a revered dissident, and
a chastened patient. 

I seem to hear a train clattering through the remote field,
toward a prairie unknown to all.
Woken up by its louder and louder clanks every night,
I imagine myself aboard the clamoring train in my head,
traveling to the expanse unseen by all.

Am I imprisoned by my own thoughts?
Should I set them free with words?

Isolated from the world,
am I still recognizable?

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C J. Anderson-Wu (吳介禎) is a Taiwanese writer who has published two collections about Taiwan’s dictatorship (1949–1987): Impossible to Swallow (2017) and The Surveillance (2020). Currently, she is working on her third book, Endangered Youth—to Hong Kong. Her short stories have been shortlisted for several international literary awards, including the Art of Unity Creative Award by the International Human Rights Art Festival. She is a winner of three literary competitions: Strands Lit, Invisible City, and Wordweavers.