Hannah Lund is a working writer and translator based in Shanghai. Her work has appeared in The Shanghai Literary Review, Sixth Tone, Narrative Magazine, and several China-based outlets. She co-founded a Hangzhou-based writer’s association in 2016 and has a master’s degree in Comparative Literature from Zhejiang University. Her website is: hannahlund.com.

 

Electric Brain (电脑)

 

I awake to the screen bleeding its cerebral current,

its ones and zeroes stitching the lobes,

lunging like lightning kisses,

livid flicks of lethargy.

 

The static doesn’t sting as much as the night

when the world refracts,

its eyes underlined, slugged by insomnia —

that hollow thud resuscitating it

when there’s nothing to see, but always something on

waking as if drowning

when the lights go out.

 

The bite and the hiss of its snicker

and the cool slide of its tongue

as it whispers, “Stay”

is a sticky, shivering web pulsing along my spine.

Its warmth is like a curtain, a blink

and then a field of endless lightning

pummeling the earth to keep it aflame.