Wounded | Teen Ink

Wounded

October 21, 2015
By RexHsieh GOLD, Shanghai, Other
RexHsieh GOLD, Shanghai, Other
15 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.


I imagined the sound of the

ambulance
when I tied a tourniquet

 

around my torn thighs,
when it hurt
as if you tied straws

 

around a wound. Bitter wound,
I thought. This
is like a golden ridge

 

that stained ruby,
ermine-like
on the battlefield

 

in Rwanda, 1994,
or New York,
2001, or Iraq

 

for many damn years, right?
White blood, hairs
and heirs of different colours

 

all lay in the
archetype of
American life—

 

which is one small blip
on the big
radar I call universe.

 

And I say “small” for a reason:
because…well,
we chose this life, didn’t we?

 

We picked fists
over talk,
or argument, debates, with our equally

 

faltering minds.
Maybe, I
say, this is the best:

 

this, is our
consciousness;
you know, this mind, however intractable,

 

ignoble, or
unreal, is
a fact we live with—just like I am with my wound.



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