Truth, by Ada Gong

I. truth

Truthfully, 

I am Hou Yi who shoots down the nine suns,

The greatest archer,

Tasked by the emperor to carry a great responsibility. 

I am Chang’e who is the goddess of the moon,

The immortal beauty,

Residing in the realm closest to heaven.

I am the Rat who triumphs over the other animals,

The small and mighty,

Winning the race, with cleverness and wit, to become first. 

I am the color red, 

The lucky color,

Making the hideous monster Nian tremble with fear.

II. lie

she eats her sticky white rice

in the bathtub, with her hair

wet. her face wet. her eyes stained 

with red. her face with salt. her soul

with fear. the scent of freesia, or a kind of 

floral perfume lingers around. she only gets up briefly, to 

close the window, stopping the light breeze,

that tickled her skin, and burned it all up.

she stares at the mirror in front of her,

the only thing she sees is a 

distorted reflection. it makes her features

look puny, and silly, with the grains of rice

stuck on the corner of her mouth,

a regret. or two. or more, 

not the first, nor last.

she turns off the lights, left in

darkness. she imagines she is one with

the stars, knowing too well she cannot 

be even close to being leagues upon

leagues from the moon. or the 

sun. not a sun god nor moon goddess,

far from being someone’s son

or daughter. she is not the sky, 

but rather a weight in the bathtub, counting 

the imaginary suns in her head,

like the days she spent counting 

the cold tiles, the grains of rice,

the teardrops and the days, 

and the wishes (or the single wish)

to wash herself

out of existence, 

III. 

red is just a color, and

rats are still pests, and

hou yi’s apprentice wanted to steal the immortal elixir, and 

in self-defense, chang’e drank both immortal elixirs, and

floated up up up to the moon, and 

cursed to be stuck on the moon, alone, husband-less, and

hou yi, now wife-less, permanently separated from her,

as mortal as ever, as human as well, 

and he takes his own life.