Translated by Iris Fan Xing
1
thirty-nine thousand feet above

a thin blue line runs across

an unknown island on the map
on the other side of the equator

another pair of eyes

lead you through

peak hour crowds
old memories replaced by the new

some names match

their faces, others don’t
on a descending escalator

you see people ascending

for the New Year countdown
2 
she said

when representing history

you need to defamiliarise
does she mean we should see

through the eyes of that stray cat?
sliding my hand into my pocket

touched two one yuan coins

except one slightly bigger