Earthworm- Jiewei Li

Earthworms are the veins of the earth.

The proof is their souls carved on the ground during drought.

Ground Dragons, as they are called in the Far East.

While dragons mean everything in China:

The root of a mountain is a throbbing dragon pulse;

The place where the emperor resides

is where the dragon lies.

The Ground Dragons are thought so much lightly.

Maybe it’s the word ‘ground’, it sounds so earthy.

The fact is that they are even taken as evil.

There is an old saying, warning against

kids sitting on the ground with their bare butts:

‘Earthworms will go from the anus,

eat your insides, when lost and trapped in guts.’

It is better to listen to these old, ridiculous beliefs.

Just look at how these worms pathologically dilate

on your scrotum, suffocating the tadpoles;

how they mock up lightning

on the windowpanes of a revving car.

passing lamp posts that rhythmically reoccur

on a rainy day.

Name’s Jiewei Li. Chinese since 1991. Lancaster University Creative Writing MA in 2019. Single and out of a job in 2020. Writing and hoping for better in 2021.