Five Poems by Changming Yuan

 

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Your inner being is so full of sunlight

Every flower that catches sight of you

Begins to bloom against the season

Just as each face that turns towards you

Bursts into a smile when you pass by

Rain Sparrow

                   Above this wild wild world covered

                With layers and layers and layers

            Of red dust, my selfhood

          Has long been tired

        Tired of flying

        Flying alone

        Day & night

But where can I perch?

Do I have a nest at all?

       O for a solid

          Respite before

           Continuing my lonely

            Flight, snuggling my inner-

            Most being in the heart of your

               Soul, and settling my weathered body

                Right at the A-spot of your tenderness

Lingua Franco

With words gushing out of

My innermost being, by following

The syntax of the superpower’s language

I have built an ethereal monument of

Immortality, a universal museum of

The human heart, where the most

Treasured mainstay is my thought of you

The Counting of My Remaining Days

Even if from January to December

I have only twelve days to live, even

If from Monday to Sunday I have

Only seven days to function, or even

If from Spring to Winter I have only

Four days to breathe, my heart will

Keep pumping blood to every vessel

To nourish every cell at my synapses

So I can feel you for the last three

Days: yesterday, today, and tomorrow

Mayuhe Revisited: a 50-Word Romance

Behind the shadow

Of this tall pine

I left all my dreams

About your face &

Smiles for a bright

Future (with a rosier

Romance) ahead, but

Only to return here

Five decades later

To join you in body

As in spirit, from

The opposite sides

Of this wild world

Author's note: This group of love poems is inspired by Helena Qi Hong (祁红).

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Yuan Changming edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include 12 Pushcart nominations for poetry and 2 for fiction besides appearances in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17), BestNewPoemsOnline and 2089 other literary outlets worldwide. A poetry judge for Canada's 2021 National Magazine Awards, Yuan began writing and publishing fiction in 2022. 

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