When I returned from Europe,
Wu Ang told me on MSN,
Cheng Junkui died.
Cheng Junkui
who once worked as a sailor in Singapore,
who, in the photo,
had chubby cheeks,
was holding up a shark.
How is his wife?
As I blurted out
the question,
my face flushed a bit.
I met her just before Tomb-Sweeping Day.
A beautiful woman rarely seen in the village,
whose eldest daughter is now fifteen,
still looked a little shy with strangers.
She then wore a red ski coat.
When the nurse taught her to dance the waltz,
she slightly swung a leg in the sunlight
like a happy newlywed young woman.
I even thought
I might have fallen in love with her
if I hadn’t known she was a victim.
Wu Ang said,
Don’t mention her.
She has become 10 years older,
10 jin thinner.