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 speechwe 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 twilightSecretly 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]