Doctor’s Poem Goes Viral for All the Right Reasons in AIRPOCALYPTIC China

January 9, 2017

A poem written by one doctor has been stirring emotions in airpocalyptic China. As of press time, thousands have shared their sentiments over the piece on Chinese social media.

The poem, written by Dr. Zhao Xiaogang, a chest surgeon, is rather obvious: smog and lung cancer are linked.

Titled “I Long to be King”, the poem is told from the perspective of “ground-glass opacity,” which describes a CT scan image showing fluid in the lungs. Apparently, it’s an early sign of lung cancer.

The poem, translated in Chinese only last week, goes:

“I long to be king,

With my fellows swimming in every vessel.

My people crawl in your organs and body,

Holding the rights for life or death, I tremble with excitement…

From tiny to strong,

From humble to arrogant.

No one cared when I was young,

But all fear me we when full grown.

I’ve been nourished on the delicious mist and haze,

That sweetly warmed my heart,

Always loving when you were heavy drunk and smoking,

Creating me a cozy home.”

Dr. Zhao told Quartz:

“I see many cancer patients everyday and I feel their pain. I wrote this poem to bring some common knowledge of lung cancer to ordinary people. Lung cancer is the leading form of cancer in China. Stress, smoking and lack of sleep are all factors that can cause cancer, while environmental pollution is also a factor that cannot be ignored.”

To survive the escalating airpocalypse, Chinese people are flying to places as far as Iceland and Antarctica, South China Morning Post reported. Since January 1, 62 cities, including Beijing, have issued consistent health alerts.

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