I Protest - by Ouyang Yu

ISLAND | ISSUE 160

Have been dipping
into my
old

journals of the
early sixties
a

mistake. Now I
feel sad
as

shit, but must
admit things
are

much better nowadays
at least
from

my point of view
Is it
really

good to keep
a journal
I

loathe doing it
at the
time

and I get depressed
when I
read

it. But it’s
such a
marvellous

treasure trove. I
have vowed
to

make an entry
a day
throughout

July, so I’ll
stick to
this

but I protest
I
protest* ▼

* Taken verbatim, and rearranged from a paragraph in Christopher Isherwood, Liberation: Diaries, Volume Three: 1970–1983 (Harper/Perennial, 2012), p 249

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This poem appeared in Island 160 in 2020. Order a print issue here.

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