Yuan Changming

Thought in Levy Flight

Where’s Allen going? Pacific. Today is Wed. My old 
Flame is sleeping, waiting to have her GGN removed
From her lungs to stamp out cancer. Poetry. Something
Good to pop up down the road? No luck is good luck
Choices Market where to work soon until 10:13 pm
A little dark cloud drifting beyond the horizon. Crows  
Pandemic. Delta plus plus plus keeps chasing us all
China has closed its doors behind the bamboo curtain
Big paranoid. I cannot to go back to Jinzhou to see 
Mom, let alone join Qi Hong & elope with her! Bid-
Den vs Trump in so many ways. The apolitical is way
More politics. Wife is cooking fish again, um, smells
Good. Blue & white & pink noises. Any dark ones?
Tinnitus makes me mad. Whistling. Ah, ppppanda!
Three trillion cells in my body, just as many stars
In the cosmos. Ants, rats, silverfish. Floaters darting
So evasive like hopes. Catch one. Paradise lost 

Chopstick Commandments

1. Avoid one chopstick longer than the other in a pair
That would recall what a coffin is made of

2. Don’t plant them in the middle of bowel of rice
Or dish, like a scent burning for the dead

3. Never use them to poke around in a dish
In the way a tomb raider works hard in dark

4. Put them strictly parallel to each other; or you
Would have yourself crossed out as a deplorable error

5. If you drop one or both of them on the ground, you
Will wake up and provoke your ancient ancestors

6. If you use them to beat containers like a drum player
You are fated to live a low and poor beggar’s life

7. When you make noises with them in your mouth
You betray your true self as a rude and rough pariah

8. Never point them towards any one if you
Do not really mean to swear at a fellow diner

9. Make sure not to pierce any food with them while eating
When you do not mean to raise your mid-finger to all around you

10. To use them in the wrong way is  
To make yourself looked down by others 

Yuan Changming grew up in an isolated village, started to learn the English alphabet in Shanghai at age nineteen and published monographs on translation before leaving China. With a Canadian PhD in English, Yuan currently edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include twelve Pushcart nominations & twelve chapbooks (most recently LIMERENCE) besides appearances in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17) & BestNewPoemsOnline, among 1,899 others, across 48 countries. Yuan served on the poetry jury for Canada’s 44th National Magazine Award.