Ageing

      

By Changming Yuan

Ageing    The other night, we were still imagining How to grow old together, wondering what Else to do besides making love in bed   But now, both of us have become really old Older than our parents when we were young Younger than our children who are getting old   While you feel wind-dried inside out, I find Myself softened at both ends. Indeed In a cold night like this, isn’t it nice   To have someone to stay close enough with And keep each other warm on this bed?     Getting Newly Old: for Liao Hengxiang   you can only talk about what you used to do and do what you used to talk about   you shrink in both ways and both ways are the only way to shrink   what's supposed to be hard softens like a boiled noodle what's supposed to be tender hardens like a winter stone   one attempt on top of another   or, one attemptable night after another   Youth   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? My Mother’s Bedding Sets: for Liu Yu   Since my father died, my mother has often cried In chilly privacy, over the fact that the only human In this entire word, who loved her most dearly had left Her alone forever. Each time sleeping between sad & Cold sheets, she cannot help recalling how he used To take out all her bedding sets on every sunny day To sunbathe them, a habit that sometimes would drive Her crazy when there was an unexpected shower   So, during my last sojourn in Jinzhou, I did something Similar, even with her mattress, & exposed them At every chance just to give her a smell of the sun Or of my father, when she still could go to bed by herself      Calculating for Redemption     While counting what I really possess, I ruled Out my car & house first, for they could be Lost or stolen anytime; then I excluded Money & fame, which would have nothing To do with me after my death; finally I Dis-counted my wife & even my offspring As the latter are totally independent Human beings, while the former can readily Marry another man. As for the poems I have written, or the books I have published They would vanish even before my name Could be connected to my life story. Yes, I do Have some memories, yet they will become Downloadable & subject to random edits By a stranger, a robot or a godling. In other Words, what is really left is only, nothing but Only the thought that is bubbling in The quagmire of my mind at this antlike Moment, which is being sucked into a black Hole in the mind. What else do I really have? Ways of Rejuvenating: for Li Lan        If your shiny eyes, or charming face Does fulfill some purpose outwardly Of all the positivity that hides within, then Keep your heart young, & you will remain Sexual, beautiful & never get the crookedness Winkled on your forehead, or seniority edging At your synapses.       Why not go climb a tree To build a nest for a bird in passing, get Yourself totally lost in singing a favourite Song, reading a teenager story, watching A cartoon, making faces to a wanton dog Playing hide-and-seek with a bold squirrel A wild cat, or an evasive whim?    Go learning A new skill like laying an egg, drawing A picture, blowing a trumpet, or starting a new Business on line. What I say is, by meeting You after 42 years of separation, & at first Sight, falling in love with you again      As I did at a high school meeting, I can Not only rejuvenate each of my synapses, but   Make you always young as my love per se        Yuan Changming grew up in an isolated village, started to learn the English alphabet 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 eleven Pushcart nominations, nine chapbooks & awards, as well as publications in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17),& BestNewPoemsOnline, among nearly 1,800 other, across 46 countries.     Lotus Image & License: Depositphotos_3273810