ContactDoubled Shadows: Selected Poems of Ouyang Jianghe
Handgun
(from the 2010 issue of Zoland Poetry)
you can take a-
part a handgun, break it
in two, into
a hand a gun
paint the hand black, you've got
a faction—
put the gun on a boat: that's
a means of persuasion
you can take apart a faction
into further partitions
parties
ambitions
you can break it into act, or action—
the world divides in infinite fissions
one eye you aim
at love; the other you ram
into the barrel of a gun
the bullets ogle
you level your nose at your enemies'
parlors: persuasion
becomes sinidextrous.
you take your hand-
gun, shoot into the west—
in the east
a man falls
the Black Hand puts on white gloves
gunboats volley in private rooms
in stone, eternal Venus stands
her hands rejecting humanity
from her breasts she pulls
a pair of drawers—
two bullets a gun
pull the trigger: it becomes a toy
murder
silence
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