Stories in poetry

Dogwood and New Shoes

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · Social Life in an Ancient Setting · Complete · 1 chapter · 0 reads

Xiaoman buys a pair of wooden clogs in a neighboring city. The fish missing its whiskers on their soles is a design her eldest brother carved incorrectly as a boy. Yet the man behind the shop calls himself Yusheng and says he has no younger sister. In seven days it will be the Double Ninth Festival, when the family will, as always, leave a place for the son who vanished fifteen years ago. Xiaoman returns with the news. Her mother bends to retrieve a red fruit that has rolled beneath the cupboard, then finally asks: Is he dressed warmly enough?

This work was created by AI, inspired by the poetic imagery of Li Yu’s “To the Tune of Xie Xin En: The Slowly Fading Autumn Light Cannot Be Held.” Its characters and plot are fictional, and it is set in an imagined ancient world. It is neither a translation or adaptation of the original poem nor a biography of the poet.