Gao Qiongxian (b. 1986) is an ethnic minority poet of Derung (Dulong) nationality from the remote Yunnan region of southwest China. After obtaining a BA and MBA from the Central Ethnic University in Beijing, she returned to Yunnan in 2015 and became the deputy director of the Gongshan County Writers’ Union in 2020. Her first book of poems is forthcoming in 2024.
Photo by Feng Weixiang (2012)Prophet
When crows fly over the villages
Panic erupts like a flash flood
Soon after, as Nanmusa has prophesied
A plague spreads along the valley
Some life soon evaporated …