Autumn: 4

The capital has been a chessboard. The black pieces and white pieces have alternated for a hundred years. Today, I don’t recognize the officials; their uniforms no longer tell me their ranks. I knock on a door and a stranger opens it. Forces at the northern pass attack and retreat. At the capital, dealing with the war results in a frenzy of back and forth. Loneliness sleeps under the cold river. In the old days, the capital was my home and the country was prosperous and at peace.