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Poem

Song Xiaoxian

Enormous Appetite

on highways in the north of China
trucks loaded with chickens from Hunan
beef cattle from Jiangxi and pigs from Sichuan
make their way south to Guangzhou

there, the Pearl River delta
is like a bottomless pit
swallowing in one gulp
the animals of several provinces

swallowing in a steady stream
never shutting its mouth
the highways
are its guts

its only thought is to devour, devour
in a blanket of thick smoke
and we digest, digest
with our enormous appetites

but what will we do when we have eaten all the animals?
we’ll kill the cars, tackling them like crabs:
ripping off the carapace
and sucking out the grease

ENORMOUS APPETITE

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Enormous Appetite

on highways in the north of China
trucks loaded with chickens from Hunan
beef cattle from Jiangxi and pigs from Sichuan
make their way south to Guangzhou

there, the Pearl River delta
is like a bottomless pit
swallowing in one gulp
the animals of several provinces

swallowing in a steady stream
never shutting its mouth
the highways
are its guts

its only thought is to devour, devour
in a blanket of thick smoke
and we digest, digest
with our enormous appetites

but what will we do when we have eaten all the animals?
we’ll kill the cars, tackling them like crabs:
ripping off the carapace
and sucking out the grease

Enormous Appetite

on highways in the north of China
trucks loaded with chickens from Hunan
beef cattle from Jiangxi and pigs from Sichuan
make their way south to Guangzhou

there, the Pearl River delta
is like a bottomless pit
swallowing in one gulp
the animals of several provinces

swallowing in a steady stream
never shutting its mouth
the highways
are its guts

its only thought is to devour, devour
in a blanket of thick smoke
and we digest, digest
with our enormous appetites

but what will we do when we have eaten all the animals?
we’ll kill the cars, tackling them like crabs:
ripping off the carapace
and sucking out the grease
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