UNIFORM
by Xiang Yang
They all wear the same uniform, they allSwing their arms in unison, they all march to the same step
On a road of lush spring grass; they are satisfied
To close ranks, their eyebrows, mouths, and shoulders
Forming a line to carefully measure the silent plain
Even the wind dares not cough. They
Chop down conceited trees, prune away
Leafy branches and flowers; finally they all
Look up and shake their heads as one, for naturally, as
Dressers and keepers of this earthly garden, they cannot force
Uniformity on the clouds in the sky
Translated by John Balcom
Xiang Yang was born central Taiwan in 1955 and grew up in a village where his family ran a small shop. He is deputy publisher and executive editor of the Independence Evening Post, the oldest evening newspaper in Taiwan. At present, he is also teaching at Providence University in Taichung, while working on a Ph.D. in journalism. Seven collections of his poetry have been published to date: Looking Up at the Gingko Tree (1977), Seeds (1980), Ten-Line Poems (1984), Time (1985), Songs of the Soil (1985), The Four Seasons (1986), and My Cares (1987).