Poems by Changming Yuan.

Pippa’s Lament

a newly liberated butterfly
beating her wings against the freshness of flowers --no eye is looking at it

a speckled-faced village boy
shouting loud at his dirt-free future in his dream --no ear is listening to him

a thick summer sunbeam
warming a flat stone in the heart of the forest --no finger is touching it

a rich and brilliant dish
lying on the big table in an empty monstrous house --no tongue is tasting it

a blood-stained sea breeze
blowing afar from an island beyond the horizon --no nose is smelling it

no one knows god is not in heaven
nor is all well with this worthy world

The New Silk Route

has it ever occurred to you
this upgraded silk route
now passing through new york
and los angeles to mars
all started from a white wobbling worm
who has never stopped launching
his filament, and filament out
in a persistent pale pain
as he tries to weave into the fabric
of this world’s dazzling brocade
a gear-edged raspberry leaf
by using his tiny toothless mouth
to chew its wounded texture?

The Savage Spot of Light

long after turning off
your monster tv set
you still seem to see
at the screen center
a bright dot of light
a stubborn full stop
forgotten to put at the end
of a rambling run-on sentence
made all in a maze
about love and/or hatred

with a wet mop of history
you try hard to wipe it off
yet it refuses to vanish
like a primordial black hole
sucking its own surface inside
as it grew larger, rounder
and blurred instead

trying harder to stop it up
you squeeze in your coins
books, plantpots, photoframes
sofas, shoes, finally clothes
and everything in hand
but only to be thrown out
right on the spot

frustrated and desperate
you jump your entire naked self in
with your heart and names alike
until you became one dimensional
losing both your mind and freedom
senseless

Man’s Mutation

dear god, i often wonder
in bitter sweetness
or sweet bitterness
whether i or my first home computer
is the real father of my son
who i well remember
was not conceived in a chip
but seemed to have been delivered
at the wrong website
breastfed at chat rooms
brought up in a silver cyber space
as he just refuses to grow
into a full human being
like myself, my father
or my father's father
i know he is not really a monster
but only a cold blooded hybrid
between my high mind and high tech
so forever lost in virtual reality
that no birth day celebrations
can hope to wake him up
from his quasi hibernation
on the little mouse pad

I Love You, Dear Death

even since pangu
separating the sky from the earth
all my poor fellow humans
have been hating
hiding from, or
fighting face to face with you
although in vain

but i love you, dear death
not because you are the more fair, and sincere than any lover willing to declare nor because you are the ultimate home to any wandering soul seeking a dome nor because you could even give one's name a guaranteed immortal fame

i do not know how to count
the countless ways i love you
yet i have flirted with your shadow
hundreds of times in private
when i found it unbearable
every cutting pain in my body
when i was simply sick of the fact
life is full of the foul, or
when i lost the meaning and direction
of my dull and humble life
i love you, dear death
because only you can liberate my soul
from the stuffy prisonhouse and give me
the fresh air in the outside world

All rights reserved by the author. No reproductions without consent.