A short experimental film shot in Beijing.

1. silent
industrial
towers

2. What do idle train tracks think about
as they lie where locomotives
no longer work?
What does the almost-empty coal mouth say
to the leftover bits of soot
that remain among its teeth
while biting into the ground
for the last time?
How do the chimneys that once billowed
immeasurable quantities of smoke feel
1
and the city has already grown
around them far and wide?

4. Coal and soot and sweat
A city of labor slowly succumbing to
the exposure of the elements.
The clank clank clank
of man and machinery replaced by
playful birds and boisterous cicadas
2
where the timeless steam engine
has reached the end of its line
and weeds soften the unfertile ground
where workers forged a living
as well as a nation.
The industrial era may be gone
but the art of life has just begun.

6. I want to tell my story through art
the call-girl says as her beautiful naked body
adorns the East German-built factory walls,
that I might share the error of my ways
and thereby obtain some absolution.
Let the students come and view this place
a trendy venue for a modern revolution,
3
a great departure from the burdens
their forefathers endured.
It seems only right that
their youthful attempts at art
built by the Communist Fist.

8. silent
industrial