A Poem From China That Could Have Been Written Anywhere

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Last year you went
with your troops

to Tibet.

And when your men
had vanished

beyond the city-wall, 

news was cut off

between the two worlds

as between

the living and the dead.
 

No one has come upon

a faithful horse guarding

a  crumpled tent or torn flag,

or any trace of you.
 

If only I knew,

I might serve you
in the temple, 

instead of these tears

toward the far sky.

***

ZHANG JI

Thinking of a Friend
  Lost in the Tibetan War    

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