Our stomachs full, as were our hearts.
Our bowls once filled to the brim, now our cups.
With what used to be millet, left fermented to fill these hearts
By displacing sorrow with a remedy.

A remedy,
To help us forget, for that few hours.
Forget that we just had our last meal together as friends.
Pairs of chopsticks by our individual bowls,
Empty of all the grains that have been picked,
Carefully.

Carefully,
Like how we picked memories to reminisce about,
The whole night.

That night,
My final night, our final drinks.

My final night, as a free man.

Numbing myself to what may come on the battlefield,
As a twenty-year old
Man.

• A man from Southern China during the Han Dynasty who decides to get conscripted in the army instead of paying the fee to avoid serving.