Cenotaph of a Political Dissident

Are you in a dungeon of
Cold stones crawled with moss
Caused by years of dripping rain?

Are you in a cave of
Precipitous rock
On the edge of the world
Without any access to home?

Are you drifting in the stream
Washed toward the borderless ocean
Without return?

Are you flying in the sky
Heading for the heaven
Of peace and love?

Are you?

After decades of absence
We finally have to bury you
With the suit you cherished most
And only wore for the most ceremonial occasions
Your inauguration as a physician
Your own wedding
Award receiving
Your children’s graduation

After the horrible torture
Physically and mentally
Are you able to reunite with your fellows
Sharing the same idealism that is
Taboo of the regime?

Are you able to rest in the tomb
We prepared for you
With the suit symbolizing
The greatest honors of your life
And your unbendable dignity?

Are you able to hear, from the soil of your grave
Sun kissing
Bird singing, and
Wind whispering
Over the past decades of longing?

Are you?

C.J. Anderson-wu is a Taiwanese writer who has published two fiction collections about Taiwan's military dictatorship (1949–1987), known as White Terror: Impossible to Swallow (2017) and The Surveillance (2021). She is currently working on her third book Endangered Youth—to Hong Kong. Her works have been shortlisted for a number of international literary awards, including the 2024 Flying Island Poetry Manuscript Competition. She also won the Strands Lit International Flash Fiction Competition, the Invisible City Blurred Genre Literature Competition, and the Wordweavers Literature Contest. Read other articles by C.J..