Where Waters Meet

by Zhang Ling

for everything she wanted, there would be something else she had to give up, as the price.

Too late, death outruns everything, including truth.

A marriage is like a pair of shoes: only the wearer knows whether they fit, went the old saying.

Every night is a tiny death, Mother used to tell her, and every morning a tiny rebirth.

Stop thinking your bad thoughts. Bad thoughts lead to bad luck, they are the root of all the bad things.

There is a child in all old people. The lock guarding the passage from mind to tongue, overused and rusty, now no longer holds. They speak their mind. Children are cruel, and old children, brutal.