four poems by Yuan Changming

The nursery rhyme jumps from my aging chest

Eager to embrace the changing world with zest

Hello, young trees! Hello, summer’s sunshine!

How are you all doing along this humble line?

I will resume my old childhood dream

I will try this new feature like ice cream

I will return to my long lost native place

On this planet’s other side to find the face

& confess to her as the apple of my eye 

Pretending I can restart my life, can’t I?

The cosmos is expanding

Black holes sucking 

Old stars sparkling

New stars being born

Manmade satellites moving around the earth

Earth rotating & revolving

Clouds colliding

E.signals shooting  

The swishing of traffic on Granville Street

Sawing at the house construction site nearby

Power-washing 

Mowing

Talking to a fellow human  

Tick-tacking of the clock

Buzzing of the fridge

Computer fanning while in the present moment

My heart is beating, as silence presents itself as

A vast stage, where noises enter & exit one after another 

As if to leave my protobeing alone, all in a hurry   

怒: anger influxes when slavery 

                                                                          Rises from above the heart

愁: worry thickens as autumn 

                                                                          Sits high on your heart

闷: depressed whenever your heart is

                                                                          Shut behind a door

意: meaning is defined as 

                                                                          A sound over the heart

思: thought takes place 

                                                                          In the field of heart

忘: forgetting happens 

                                                                          When there’s death on heart

忍: to tolerate is to bear a knife

                                                                          Right above your heart 

                             It is an undeniable fact now: 

They have arisen from the bare ground

Like the phoenix flapping its wings out of its 

Legendary ashes, where are they going?

Nowhere but high up into a virtual space, a world 

That, like history book, is full of black headlines

Big names, & bold details. All transmitted

Into digital forms. Even the most unidentifiable

Has become a star above its dark caws. 

                                                               Each 

Taken for an angel winged with the rainbows 

Of tomorrow, while all cranes and swans are lost 

                      In their dances to the tune of death