CHANGMING YUAN

CHANGMING YUAN

CREATION OF LANGUAGE

With an extra pair of eyes

Able to see ever father beyond imagination

And straight through the clouds of time

Cangjie invented all the characters

On a single Chinese day, ensued by

A downpour of millet during the day

And a storm of ghost cries at night

Just as extraordinary phenomena

Would concur with the birth of

Every Yellow Emperor

That’s actually twenty six centuries long

Before Jesus was created

THE WORSHIPPING OF NOUNS

No, no, it’s not nominalism of any kind

In the English sense of the word, but

A long-held tradition of worshipping

Nouns ever since Confucius said if the name

Is not proper, the speech will not go right

Yes, humanity, justice, etiquette, wisdom

Faith, then loyalty, filial piety, chastity

Righteousness …like a barbaric atheist

We believe in each and every one of such

Holy nouns, though we seldom practice them

As they uphold democracy, freedom, equality

Independence, fraternity, and human rights

However, this does not mean we all

Worship nouns only for nouns’ sake

WESTERNIZATION OF CHINESE CIVILIZATION

First, the basic words we used to speak

Or think in our mother tongue have

Now become multi-syllabled rather

Than single-syllabled in the past

Then, we read and write from left to right

Instead of the other way around, and

More important, we depend far more

On passive voice and conjunctions in syntax

Than ever in history, among other things

In addition, we now wear suits other than gowns

We cut hair rather than keep it in a pigtail

So, what else shall we change to embrace

Modernization or Americanization?

THE RAPIST: THE CHINESE CATCHWORD IN 2016

Fate is neither the knocking at the door

Of your heart, nor the perfect storm

Nor a peculiar restaurant, nor a gift

Nor your life per se; rather, it is…

The more powerful red rapist: if you

Can’t resist it, try to enjoy the process

PRACTICE

After the plants restore greenness in their

Slightly bloated shape, again, you look forward

To the fictions, wondering if you have

Long forgotten your unwanted pasts

She returned to Tianjin that summer, but you

Were not really separated. You needed

Some privacy to sleep alone over

Her betrayal, in heart if not in body

This world cherishes no more loyalty; each

Matrimony has reduced to a sex play

With money, or a state of inertia

For mutual convenience. In reality

The heart wears out with ischemia, just like

Trees becoming skeletons in winter

CHANGMING YUAN