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Aren’t We All a Special Species
Kept together with the entire
Solar system enclosed
Within an ever larger bubble if
If only it were true as
They have newly discovered
Near the Zoo
A hen party is held
Around a sitting duck
While there is a bull meeting
Where you can see the elephant
Getting the goose when it tries to tell
The difference between the sheep and the goats
Farther away, a black snake falls down
Neither fish, flesh nor fowl
Smelling a rat somewhere
As you are being showed the lions
Ready to take the bull by the horns
Until the cows come home
While learning about birds and bees
I feel ants in my pants
The cat’s got my tongue
Hey, I do not mean to chicken out
Or clam up on these dog days
Rather, I would try to be an eager beaver
Hold my horses
When I have a cow
That’s what a little bird told me
About how they made a beeline for
Pigging out
Before it rains dogs and cats
On the Campus
Every school year there is
As much summer
As many a tree here
Than in my native village in China
But there is not a single cicada
At any twig, or among any clusters
Of leaves, a cicada that I used to listen to
Singing aloud monotonously, like a
Fine saw working on a rusty metal
Or between my boyish ears
What I hear is a deafening American voice
About selling every human
Behavior, every human whim
That keeps penetrating each animal ear
Outside the Shopping Mall
Never are those ants-like creatures
Crawling to joint it – under low bushes
Across trails, at cracks, where
It occasionally dwells. All the tiny
Minds go up through the words like
Dust rising above trees, as the wind
Keeps blowing, and the ladder reaches
Higher against the Babel Tower
Disciples across the whole world
Gather to approach Menfucius
And Menfucus approaches Confucius
And Confucius approaches Laozi, who
Is still trying hard, harder than Socrates
To find Tao above yin and yang
Within the Observatory
If every human had a pair of wings
(Made of strong mussels and broad feathers
Rather than wax like Icarus’)
Who wouldn’t jump high or become eager to fly
Either towards the setting sun
Or against the rising wind?
Who wouldn’t migrate afar with sunshine
And glide most straight to a warmer spot
In the open space? Indeed
Who would continue to confine himself
Within the thick walls of a small rented room?
Who would willingly take a detour
Bump into a stranger, or stumble down
Along the way? More important
Who would remain fixed here
At the same corner all her life
Like a rotten stump, hopeless
Of a new green growth?
At the Zen Temple: one (self-portraying) word can be worth even more than
10,000 pictures although many people would allege that the opposite is true
In-Lightened
Bio:
Yuan Changming co-edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan. Writing credits include 16 chapbooks, 12 Pushcart nominations for poetry and 3 for fiction besides appearances in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17), BestNewPoemsOnline and 2129 other publications across 51 countries. A poetry judge for Canada's 44th National Magazine Awards, Yuan began writing and publishing fiction in 2022. His debut novel Detaching, 'silver romance' The Tuner and short story collection Flashbacks are all available at Amazon, his duology Edening due out in 2026.
Kept together with the entire
Solar system enclosed
Within an ever larger bubble if
If only it were true as
They have newly discovered
Near the Zoo
A hen party is held
Around a sitting duck
While there is a bull meeting
Where you can see the elephant
Getting the goose when it tries to tell
The difference between the sheep and the goats
Farther away, a black snake falls down
Neither fish, flesh nor fowl
Smelling a rat somewhere
As you are being showed the lions
Ready to take the bull by the horns
Until the cows come home
While learning about birds and bees
I feel ants in my pants
The cat’s got my tongue
Hey, I do not mean to chicken out
Or clam up on these dog days
Rather, I would try to be an eager beaver
Hold my horses
When I have a cow
That’s what a little bird told me
About how they made a beeline for
Pigging out
Before it rains dogs and cats
On the Campus
Every school year there is
As much summer
As many a tree here
Than in my native village in China
But there is not a single cicada
At any twig, or among any clusters
Of leaves, a cicada that I used to listen to
Singing aloud monotonously, like a
Fine saw working on a rusty metal
Or between my boyish ears
What I hear is a deafening American voice
About selling every human
Behavior, every human whim
That keeps penetrating each animal ear
Outside the Shopping Mall
Never are those ants-like creatures
Crawling to joint it – under low bushes
Across trails, at cracks, where
It occasionally dwells. All the tiny
Minds go up through the words like
Dust rising above trees, as the wind
Keeps blowing, and the ladder reaches
Higher against the Babel Tower
Disciples across the whole world
Gather to approach Menfucius
And Menfucus approaches Confucius
And Confucius approaches Laozi, who
Is still trying hard, harder than Socrates
To find Tao above yin and yang
Within the Observatory
If every human had a pair of wings
(Made of strong mussels and broad feathers
Rather than wax like Icarus’)
Who wouldn’t jump high or become eager to fly
Either towards the setting sun
Or against the rising wind?
Who wouldn’t migrate afar with sunshine
And glide most straight to a warmer spot
In the open space? Indeed
Who would continue to confine himself
Within the thick walls of a small rented room?
Who would willingly take a detour
Bump into a stranger, or stumble down
Along the way? More important
Who would remain fixed here
At the same corner all her life
Like a rotten stump, hopeless
Of a new green growth?
At the Zen Temple: one (self-portraying) word can be worth even more than
10,000 pictures although many people would allege that the opposite is true
In-Lightened
Bio:
Yuan Changming co-edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan. Writing credits include 16 chapbooks, 12 Pushcart nominations for poetry and 3 for fiction besides appearances in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17), BestNewPoemsOnline and 2129 other publications across 51 countries. A poetry judge for Canada's 44th National Magazine Awards, Yuan began writing and publishing fiction in 2022. His debut novel Detaching, 'silver romance' The Tuner and short story collection Flashbacks are all available at Amazon, his duology Edening due out in 2026.
