- Field Notes from Unit 731
1. 螢 2. 园 3. 玻 4. 草
5. 牺 6. 漠 7. 牧 8. 映
9. 燔 10. 回 11. 村 12. 禱
13. 驷 14. 斧 15. 固 16. 棉
(Legend: 1. Chinese character for firefly—also two fires, atop a worm 2. Chinese character for garden, enclosed within a square 3. Chinese character for glass—also made up of the “king” radical 4. Chinese character for grass—also made up of a sun on a cross 5. Chinese character for sacrifice—also made up of the radicals for “cow” and “West” 6. Chinese character for desert—also a sun impaled on the radical for “large” 7. Chinese character for shepherd—made up of the radical for “cow” 8. Chinese word for reflection—made up of the radical for “sun”, then, on its right, another inverted sun 9. The Chinese character for “burn”—also made up of radicals for “fire” and “speech” 10. Chinese character for return—also made up of recurring square radicals 11. Chinese character for town/village made up of radicals for “wood” and “mile” 12. Chinese character for prayer made up of radicals for “ground” and “time” 13. Chinese character for ride made up of radicals for “horse” and “four” 14. Chinese character for axe made up of radical for “father” 15. Chinese character for stubborn made up of a cross within a fenced-off perimeter 16. Chinese character for cotton made up of radicals for “wood” and “white”)
1 If I set this body on fire, would I become brilliant as a
firefly? Or dissipate like ions through a copper wire?
2 We were every wild possibility locked into a four-inch
perimeter,
3 Where every fragile thing was once a body made to
be king.
4 Every morning, I dream of the sun impaled on the
electric fence.
5 A cow asks me why are you looking to your saviour
West?
6 With this crown on your head, this field could become
bigger than any of us.
7 I dream of cows impaled, resistance the flint
between a nucleus and its power.
8 I dream of cows impaled by the sun,
then the polarity that exists between powers.
9 Have you found what you are looking for? I ask
of the red and flaming hinode.
Or would I become another secret to burn?
10 Within our plywood chest, the concentric circles
buckle like a pulse.
11 The lumberjack logs miles from a town.
12 Ohms, like a temple chant, decry a field built
from stumps.
Let’s play a game of mix-and-match:
叶 a mouth and pliers
質 two knives and an eye
跑 a foot and a sack
13 There were four horsemen in the apocalypse
14 And one came fathering an axe
15 Everything we owned was then locked in a box
16 And Everything that was soft was kept as a log
