Five Poems

      

By Yuan Changming

Contingency   You can certainly put your mind (or soul) Into a gold Maytag, but first you’d better Empty the pockets, since coins or keys Left in them might damage the machine   You can certainly wash it really clean if You use warm water, the right detergent and Wash it twice, or even three times. As for the Stains, there are all kinds of powerful agents   You can certainly dry it in a machine or Better to hang it outside on a clear day Let the sunshine do the job, let nature Take care of it before you put it on again Contrasting   Rotting behind vermillion gates are Wasted wine and meat, Du Fu lamented Long ago, while human bodies are frozen To death by the roadside. This gap   Between human beings has always Existed, widening daily since before the Poet’s time until today it’s getting even Wider than between two unknown stars   Rotting now are not the wine and meat only But also the heart and soul, while frozen To death are both human bodies and hopes In the Fraser Valley Park   As dusk sags onto the landscape All dogs and their owners Return to the comfort and warmth Of their houses after a happy walk   Except fallen leaves rolling towards Big corners, where lonely homeless Humans are left behind, getting ready To spend just another cold night   They have no human masters, but are Always leashed with a rope of poverty Caging   Within the outer cage Of our connections With the pasts is Another cage of those With the futures, and right At the heart is the core Cage of all our relations With other humans In today’s world. That’s   Where your soul is kept Like a grotesque crow The Last of Homers   All gods returned to Olympus long ago All heroes have recently left for Mabakoola Now even the surviving poets are finally dying out Like yellow-shouldered blackbirds or whooping cranes   As the printed word is replaced by the icon on the screen And the world we used to live in by the virtual reality We intake artificial compounds instead of natural produce We inhale chemical particles rather than pure air Our genes are undertaking a mutation, which are Turning us from humans to e.yahoos. We live to seek Sensual pleasures only like ancient hedonists   No more do we care about truth or good, (perhaps besides beauty) Dying together with the last of Homers are all legislators with Every statesman, doctor, teacher in the traditional sense Of the word; what is left to prosper is physical senses and hard Currency besides showmen while our body evolves into comfort Our mind is degenerating dramatically like our ugly tailbones     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.