Offcourse Literary Journal
https://www.albany.edu/offcourse
http://offcourse.org
ISSN 1556-4975 
 

Four Poems, by Changming Yuan.

                                                                                            

 

Bow and Arrow

For a whole decade of
Delays and detours
You have failed after all
To find the golden bow
Yet you still hold this arrow
Close to your heart
Ready to draw it
As straight as a day dream
At the setting summer sun

 



 

Appointment

come, sunlight
let us sit tight
    side by side
let us have
    a chat or tête-à-tête
        beside silences sliced
you know quite a few
    idiomatic phrases
        of my night-coded dialect
and i understand some
    basic syntax
        of your seven colored speech

we do not have
    a common language
we do not need
    a common language
on a quiet corner
        of private afternoon
we can conduct a dialogue
    without any god
        as our interpreter

 



Failure of the Firewall

A super self-multiplying semen
God created out of Adam’s marrow
Programmed to attack every nexus
Until the whole network
Breaks down in twilight

Secretly planted in this spam message
Is a Trojanhorse commonly called desire



                                                                                                       

An Evolutionary Prophecy

A widely open bluish cage
      For fierce human beings
And other carnivore animals
This earth is an experimental zoo
            Kept a whole world away
      From all extraterrestrial visitors
Until it comes to peace and prosperity
      Under the rule of noble giant ants
The favorite pets of unknown gods
      Yet to grow


Changming Yuan grew up in rural China and authored several books before moving to Canada. Currently he teaches English in Vancouver and has published his poems in Descant, The London Magazine, Private, Sentence, Stylus and other journals. Email him at [email protected]


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