Morning north wind grey day alone in a corner of our bed cold to the bone yearning for you my faraway man. Has your foot healed? Has your winter coat arrived? Who watches over you while you sleep? If you die my tears will shroud your corpse--if I die?
 
No letters come through. I wait, look, nothing. Would I had wings to hover near you my dear. Unable I am sorrow without end.
 
I lean on others--dream I welcome the God of Death curling around my heart like a poisonous snake.  I am misery--have you forgotten me?
 
I pity our children.  Do you miss them?  They won't grow like others, play in the warm spring. They are ravaged by the violent storm of revolution.
 
Oh my beloved I want to kiss your eyes.  You my man belong to me.  I want to go to you, but our boys...
 
Come, come to me, warm, warm my loneliness with an open heart.  Dare I hope?
 
I was afraid
the swallows
wouldn't come
this spring
what with the war
and all
 
Your wife,
 
Kai-hui

(Kai Hui was assassinated in Changsha, China, 1929 by the Nationalists because she refused to renounce her marriage to Mao.)