Rumination Fugue Publication Rumination Fugue Publication | Page 102

Fear of Happiness BY LI JIASHAN I couldn’t write. When facing the plank page, I couldn’t write. My ability to do work, like a transparent shadow in my body, slowly vanishes. Seeing myself in the mirror yet couldn’t recognize the reflec- tion. A part of me is broken. Somebody tears it apart, strangles it. It’s gone. I used to be working several hours not feeling tired, now, with not so much work, pressing a single key is equivalent to strength with three deep breaths. My soul, struggles to live in the narrow crack between the relaxation and hard-working separate state of mind and body, just like me the person is “crawling between earth and heaven.” They said everything slows with depression, energy is drained, every movement every word is a struggle. Eyes always slide away, unable to concentrate, thought drifts, heart sinks, head swings. Body is being dragged lower and lower, crossing the earthly dust to the never-ending abyss that lays beneath.